Full Stack AI Engineer (Contract-to-Hire) – BUILDORS

AI Lead / Founding AI Engineer – Buildors (PlanEstimate Initiative) Company Buildors is building the Everything Construction App—a vertically integrated platform covering estimating, project management, procurement, CRM, scheduling, and financial controls for contractors. AI is not a feature at Buildors; it is the backbone. Your first mission will be PlanEstimate, our AI-powered estimating engine. From there, you will architect and deploy AI across every major Buildors module. About PlanEstimate (Your First Assignment) PlanEstimate converts PDF construction blueprints into CSI-coded, line-item cost estimates covering labor, materials, quantities, units, and markup. No CAD. No manual takeoffs. PDFs only. Construction estimating today is slow, error-prone, and a major cause of cost overruns and delays. PlanEstimate replaces manual blueprint reading with an AI pipeline combining OCR, computer vision, and structured cost mapping, producing editable, industry-standard estimates in minutes instead of days. PlanEstimate is live as a concept and prototype. You will turn it into a production-grade AI system and then replicate the AI framework across Buildors. Role Overview We are hiring a Founding AI Engineer / Head of AI (initially contract, path to full-time, equity, or co-founder). You will: Own AI strategy across Buildors end-to-end Lead development of PlanEstimate as the first flagship AI product Design reusable AI infrastructure for estimating, scheduling, procurement, compliance, and forecasting This is a hands-on builder role, not research-only. You will write production code, ship features, and define architecture. Core Responsibilities 1. PlanEstimate – AI Blueprint-to-Estimate Engine Build the full pipeline to ingest PDF construction drawings Implement OCR for notes, dimensions, legends, and callouts Implement object/symbol detection for architectural, electrical, plumbing, and equipment symbols Map detected elements to CSI MasterFormat cost codes Generate structured estimates: quantities, units, labor, materials, markup Enable user overrides and learning feedback loops 1. AI Systems Architecture (Platform-Wide) Design reusable AI services usable across Buildors modules Define model orchestration, inference pipelines, and data flows Establish standards for AI outputs feeding business logic and UX Ensure scalability for real-world contractor usage (large PDFs, many users) 1. Backend & API Development Build AI-driven backend services (Python preferred: FastAPI/Flask) Expose clean APIs for upload, inference, review, and editing Integrate AI outputs with Buildors’ estimating and project systems Design data models for plans, detections, estimates, and revisions 1. Frontend Integration Support frontend workflows (React/TypeScript) Enable plan viewing, overlays, and estimate-to-drawing traceability Ensure fast, intuitive review and editing experiences 1. Cloud, DevOps, and MLOps Deploy on AWS or GCP with Docker and optional Kubernetes Design GPU usage strategy for inference and training Implement CI/CD pipelines Establish annotation, retraining, and model evaluation workflows 1. Leadership & Ownership Work directly with the founder on product and AI roadmap Translate construction workflows into AI logic Set engineering standards as the first AI hire Grow into Head of AI / Technical Co-Founder if successful Required Qualifications Area Requirement Full-Stack Engineering 3+ years building production web apps end-to-end AI / ML Integration Real-world experience shipping ML systems Computer Vision Object detection (YOLO or similar), image processing OCR Tesseract, EasyOCR, or equivalent Backend Python, APIs, data modeling Frontend React + TypeScript integration experience Cloud AWS/GCP, Docker; Kubernetes a plus Ownership Comfortable owning systems without hand-holding Strongly Preferred Construction tech / AEC exposure Familiarity with CSI MasterFormat Startup or zero-to-one product experience MLOps, labeling pipelines (Label Studio or similar) Leadership ambition (this grows into a team) Compensation & Structure Initial contract (paid, milestone-based) Fast path to full-time Equity or co-founder discussion for the right person Remote-friendly, outcome-driven Why This Role Matters You are not joining an AI experiment. You are defining how AI operates across a multi-product construction platform with real customers and revenue. PlanEstimate is only the beginning—estimating, procurement, scheduling, forecasting, and compliance all follow. This role has technical authority, product influence, and ownership upside. One-line summary: This is a rare chance to architect and lead AI across a real construction SaaS platform, starting with PlanEstimate and scaling into a foundational leadership role at Buildors. Job Types: Full-time, Part-time, Contract Pay: $50,000.00 - $89,321.54 per year Work Location: Remote