Position: Technical Co-Founder (Software Engineering, AI/ML)

Location: Remote (US, Canada, Aotearoa, or Australia preferred)
Team: Tumeke Innovation
Projects: Errata (interactive world) + Platform (worldbuilding + behavioral systems platform)
Commitment: Co-founder level (equity-based with transition to salaried structure)
Start Date: Flexible, but Q3–Q4 2025 preferred

About the Role

Tumeke is seeking a co-founder with deep technical expertise across AI systems, interactive media, and scalable infrastructure. This is a build-first role for someone who wants to shape long-term architecture, not just ship features.

You’ll lead engineering across two integrated initiatives:

• Errata: a Māori-led, AI-supported interactive world built in Unreal Engine 5

• The Platform: a behavior-logic and world-systems platform for creators, leveraging cultural frameworks like whakapapa, tikanga, and utu

We’re not layering cultural aesthetics onto generic tech. We’re designing new interaction systems from the ground up that are responsive, relational, and extensible.

You will work directly with the founder and creative leads to prototype, refine, and scale both gameplay systems and backend platforms. This role is foundational to Tumeke’s roadmap.

Core Responsibilities

• Architect and build robust backend systems for both interactive and platform products

• Integrate AI/ML tooling where culturally safe and technically necessary (LLMs, behavior trees, generative design scaffolds)

• Lead engineering work within Unreal Engine (5.x), including blueprint optimization and C++ extensions

• Oversee data infrastructure, including world-state tracking, relational/nosql hybrids, and long-term player memory systems

• Co-develop cultural safety protocols around AI model usage and prompt boundaries

• Contribute to platform-level API and SDK design for Platform integrations

• Build and document systems that can scale, be audited, and hold relational logic

Minimum Qualifications

• 6+ years experience in software engineering, ideally across multiple environments

• Proven experience with machine learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, or transformer-based LLM tools)

• Familiarity with prompt engineering, model hosting, or custom inference pipelines

• High fluency in Unreal Engine 5 (both Blueprints and C++)

• Strong database systems knowledge (PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Firebase, or similar at scale)

• Ability to manage infrastructure across dev and production environments (CI/CD, containerization, logging, etc.)

• Comfortable working in a distributed team with asynchronous workflows

Preferred Attributes

• Experience working in games, simulation, or narrative AI systems

• Familiarity with Indigenous data sovereignty principles or cultural modeling frameworks

• Demonstrated success in early-stage or co-founder environments

• Strong communication skills: technical writing, roadmap planning, and feedback culture

What We’re Building Toward

This isn’t a sprint-to-exit startup. Tumeke is building long-life systems:

• Interactive fiction that evolves across platforms

• Design tools that respect cultural integrity

• AI behavior models that prioritize relationship over exploitation

You won’t be handed a fixed spec in this role. You’ll help write it from the ground up.

Compensation and Equity

Cash aligned to stage and location. Equity grant in options or restricted stock, with 4-year vesting and a 1-year cliff, vesting monthly thereafter. Full IP assignment. Good-leaver and bad-leaver terms apply.

Performance Top-ups

Additional equity may be tied to objective milestones such as public demo ship, cost and reliability targets, and two senior hires delivered. Top-ups vest on completion and board confirmation.

Optional Investment

Employment and equity are not contingent on any personal investment. This is a shared-risk company build.

Interested?  Apply here with the subject “Technical Co-Founder Application – Tumeke.”