We're hiring
Build the verification layer for consequential AI
Ontic verifies AI outputs against authoritative evidence before anyone can act on them. Models are good at generating plausible answers. We make sure those answers are provably correct — or they don't ship. We're hiring the founding team to build it.
How We Work
Operating Constraints (Not Brand Language)
Before reading further, read our About page. Our core values—Truth Over Fluency, Authority Is Earned, Refuse When You Should, and Build the System, Not the Fix—are not HR marketing copy. They are the actual structural axioms of our architecture and our company. If you do not fundamentally agree with them, you will hate working here.
Our Focus (The Hedgehog)
We operate on Jim Collins' Hedgehog Concept. We ignore the broader AI hype cycle to focus entirely on building deterministic enforcement architecture for generative AI. We do not build generic wrappers; we build the cage.
The No A**hole Rule
Ontic is a small team where everyone ships across boundaries. We balance our technical ambition with strict adherence to Bob Sutton's No A**hole Rule. We do not hire brilliant jerks. You can be the most talented systems engineer on the planet, but if you demean your peers, hoard knowledge, or lead with ego, you have no place here.
The Monday Morning Reality
The pace here is measured but relentless. We don't do artificial sprints; we do deep, concentrated engineering. You will be writing high-performance TypeScript, optimizing complex PostgreSQL/pgvector schemas, and squeezing every drop of performance out of local inference engines (vLLM/Ollama) for air-gapped deployments. You will spend time reading dense compliance frameworks and writing the middleware that enforces them. Quality is structural. We expect you to leave the codebase better than you found it.
Clear Boundaries (The Day One Speech)
People perform best when expectations are explicit. On day one, we welcome you to the team and immediately outline exactly where the boundaries are.
The Deterministic Gates (Zero Tolerance): We have strict operational boundaries. Violence, theft, creating a hostile work environment, or systemic dishonesty (yes, literally lying to leadership three times) are immediate system failures. Cross them, and employment ends. No debate.
The Telemetry (Sustained Performance): Beyond the hard gates, sustained performance requires three things:
- Know: It is leadership's job to ensure you know exactly what is expected of you. We do this in writing and in weekly 1:1s. There is no guessing.
- Able: This is a shared responsibility. You bring the knowledge and skills. We bring the vision, world-class compensation, and the tools. Crucially, it is our job to get roadblocks out of your way. This includes real compassion—if you are having a hard time at home or hitting friction at work, we are here to support you.
- Willing: This is 100% your job. We can provide tools, clarity, and compassion, but we cannot engineer your willingness to do the work. Over the years, we have learned this is the one variable management cannot fix. If the expectations are clear, the roadblocks are cleared, and the willingness still isn't there, the system runs its course. Frankly, the day leadership wakes up thinking about a lack of willingness first thing in the morning is usually close to that person's last day.
How We Interview
We look for people who are introspective, humble, and wicked smart. Expect us to ask about a time you failed catastrophically at work due to a decision you made. We aren't looking for a disguised strength. We want to hear how you dissect your own wreckage, own the blast radius, and re-engineer the system so it never happens again.
Note: If you have been fired in the past for taking a risk that went south, a system failure, or a culture mismatch—tell us. We view operational scar tissue as a badge of honor, not a red flag. We prefer engineers who know where the guardrails are because they've bumped into them.