Founding AI Engineer, Generative Digital Twins
Summary
Founding AI engineer at pet-tech startup basil & friends, building Project Ember: a generative engine that turns a few photos and clips into an identity-preserving digital twin of a pet, with world-model-driven behavior and a mobile companion app. Core tech includes frontier video foundation models, depth-based motion capture, and world models.
Compensation: $60k – $120k • 0.5% – 3.0%
About basil & friends
basil & friends (Paws Limited) is an AI-enabled emotional tech company, backed by HKSTP.
We exist to celebrate one of the most profound connections in life: the one with our animal. We use the sharpest technology to build a fortress for people who look at a pet, and see a soul worth preserving across time and space.
Our debut product, The Spotlight, is a collar-mounted projection gear that reached customers in 26 countries within the first month of launch, gaining 7M+ organic views with zero ad spend—and achieving profitability from month one.
Starting with a little rescue mutt Basil at heart, we are mapping out an ecosystem of physical and digital products—celebrating the time we share together, and bridging every separation in between. We build digital twins of the animals people love, for every chapter of the bond: the pet curled up beside you today, and the one you carry in your heart.
The Problem We Are Solving
Today's generative AI can render a pet easily. But it cannot render YOUR pet, consistently, across time, with the habits and quirks only you would recognize. Identity fidelity and believable autonomy are the hard problems, and they are the ones we work on.
The Role
You will work directly with our CTO and CEO to build the core of Project Ember: a generative engine that turns a few photos and clips into a living digital twin, and the companion experience that brings it to a phone.
What You Will Build
- Identity-preserving generation: pipelines built on frontier video foundation models and depth-based motion capture, tuned so one specific animal stays recognizably itself across scenes and motion.
- A behavioral layer: world-model-driven behavior that gives each twin its own routines, moods, and moments of surprise. Closer to a life lived offscreen than to a chatbot.
- The Mobile Companion: zero-download delivery to the lock screen and everyday apps, with progressive, lightweight interactions that teach the twin who your pet really is.
- The physical-digital bridge: systems that connect what people own in the real world to what their twin collects and unlocks in the digital one.
Who You Are
- You are a pet parent, now or once. You know what it feels like to care for an animal like family, and you believe that's one of the most human things about us.
- Deep experience with generative video or image models, and a strong sense of what separates a convincing result from an uncanny one.
- Comfortable shipping: you move from research paper to working demo fast.
- You believe the best technology feels like magic.
Why This Role
- A real product with real demand. Organic global traction in 26+ countries, profitable from month one.
- A proprietary pet identity dataset that few teams in the world have access to.
- Founding-level ownership of the engine the whole company is built around.
- A team that answers to customers. We grew without paid acquisition, so we build for the people who actually use the product.
- Remote-first, pet-friendly by design. Work from wherever you do your best thinking, with your dog asleep on your feet or your cat on the keyboard.
