Who we are
Denied is the Runtime Authorization Engine for Agents.
AI agents are moving from vacuum-packed chatbots to the outer world. That shift demands a new approach to authorization - one that evaluates every action based on content, context, and risk..
We are a lean, VC-backed team, and we are looking for a Founding Engineer to join us in defining this space. This role is a hybrid of deep software engineering and hands-on solution architecture, requiring exceptional independence and a passion for building complex infrastructure from the ground up.
The Founding Team
You will be working directly with the Denied founders, who are hands-on in both product development and customer engagement:
Pietro Valfrè (CEO)
Tommaso Tassi (CTO)
Lorenzo Verna (CPO)
The Role: Dual Focus, Singular Impact
This Founding Engineer position requires a split focus between internal product development and external customer integration, ensuring our authorization product is both best-in-class and flawlessly deployed.
1. Internal Product & Infrastructure Development (Core Engineering)
You will work directly with the CPO and CTO to architect and build our core authorization product. This is a role for an engineer who thrives on solving hard, infrastructural problems.
Key Responsibilities:
- Agent Integration: Design and build extensions, middleware, and interceptors for popular agent runtimes and models (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor, OpenAI Codex).
- Framework Compatibility: Ensure deep compatibility with major agentic frameworks and tools, including Google ADK, Langchain, N8N, and proprietary solutions.
- Architectural Expertise: Develop core components such as the authorization services that manage and execute policy decisions during a tool call.
- Full Stack & DevOps: Take ownership of the entire stack, from policy engine logic to deployment pipelines (DevOps) and necessary front-end interfaces.
- Security Foundation: Contribute advanced knowledge of Identity Management, RBAC/ABAC models, and cryptographic security to ensure our product is uncompromisingly secure.
2. External Solutions & Customer Delivery (FDE)
You will act as a technical sales-oriented consultant, working alongside the CEO and CPO to onboard our first major customers—large enterprises that demand high-quality, high-performance infrastructure.
Key Responsibilities:
- Deployment & Integration: Lead the technical process of deploying Denied's solution within complex customer infrastructure environments.
- Technical Consulting: Articulate and discuss complex authorization and agent security topics with customer engineering and security teams.
- Bridging Product & Sales: Maintain a solution-oriented, customer-facing approach, translating deployment challenges and feedback directly back into the product roadmap.
What We're Looking For in a Founding Teammate
We are seeking junior to mid-seniority talent—someone with 2-6 years of serious, hands-on software building experience who is ready for a massive leap in ownership and impact.
Essential Mindset
- Radical Independence: You must be self-driven, capable of taking ambiguous product goals and translating them into production-ready code without constant oversight.
- Love for Building: This is an infrastructure company focused on quality over flash. We need someone who genuinely loves the craft of writing clean, high-performance, resilient software.
- High Work Ethic: As a VC-backed startup with massive goals, we have a lot of work to do. You must enjoy working hard and embrace the intensity of building a market-defining product.
Experience & Background
- Proven SWE Experience: Strong foundation in software engineering, full-stack development, and modern cloud deployment/DevOps practices.
- Agentic/LLM Ecosystem Knowledge: A working understanding of tool calls, Agent Runtimes, and the current landscape of agent building frameworks is crucial.
- Non-Traditional Backgrounds Welcome: We prioritize demonstrated ability over credentials. Past experience as a high-performing freelancer or self-directed OSS project builder is a major plus.
What you will get
Compensation
- Above-average salary: We offer a salary package competitive with top-tier European startups.
- Equity: Stock options are a core component of this Founding Engineer role.
Logistics
- Location: The founding team is based in Turin, Italy. We’ll consider you regardless of where you like to live. However, we’ll prefer candidates from Italy as we’d love to meet in person often. We cover the cost of flexible workstations in Turin.
Selection Process
- The Selection Process: There is no requirement for referrals or academic records. The interview process will focus heavily on actual work samples and a practical coding assignment designed to demonstrate your ability to execute on the challenges you will face daily.
If you are interested in this role and believe you are the right fit for the Denied team, please contact us by clicking “Apply” on the button below.