Agave — Full-Stack Software Engineer (SWE)

davidjoseph-co; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

On-site 5 days/week

Equity

Visa sponsorship available

Job summary

Agave is hiring a Full-Stack Software Engineer (SWE) for on-site work in San Francisco, CA. The role emphasizes backend work, connecting legacy ERP systems to modern software, with opportunities to influence data infrastructure and real-time sync across multiple modules.

Compensation ranges from $130,000 to $240,000 plus equity, with visa sponsorship available for exceptional candidates. Ideal candidates have 1-5 years of backend or full-stack experience, a CS degree from a top school, and a

Qualifications

• 1-5 years backend or full-stack engineering.
• CS degree from top 20–30 school.
• Cloud infrastructure: AWS preferred.
• Startup or founding engineering experience.
• High-ownership, low-ego operator.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain a unified API layer linking ERPs to modern software (legacy SQL/DLL/API systems).
• Ship backend for ERP Sync, AP Automation, Expense Management, and Vendor Management; frontend work validating the API.

Skills

Backend engineering

Full-stack

APIs

Real-time data

Education

CS degree

Tools

AWS

SQL

DLL

APIs

WebSockets

Job description

Agave - Full-Stack Software Engineer (SWE)

Type: Full-time | On-site (5 days/week) | San Francisco, CACompensation: $130,000-$240,000 + equityHiring count: 1Visa sponsorship: Available for exceptional candidates (H-1B, TN, and other visa types)Reports to: Not specified in posting (hiring manager referenced as \"Carina\" in intake/red-flag notes)

About Agave

Agave is the modern data infrastructure platform for construction, the world's third-largest industry. They have 550+ paying customers on 1-3 year contracts, have been profitable and cash-flow positive since 2023, and are growing 10% monthly. Backed by Accel and Y Combinator, with angel investors from Procore, Autodesk, and Plaid. The three co-founders worked together for 12+ years at Graphiq (acquired by Amazon in 2017) and then at Amazon. The product is a platform where each layer builds on the last - data connectivity through fully automated workflows: ERP Sync, AP Automation, Expense Management, Vendor Management.

Founded: 2021 | Team size: 36 (About card lists bucket \"11-50\") | Total funding: not statedIndustry: Property Tech / Construction data infrastructureWebsite: useagave.comOffice: San Francisco, CA

Why Candidates Should Join

• Profitable, not burning runway: Cash-flow positive since 2023, 550+ paying customers, 10% monthly growth - durable business, not a pre-revenue bet.


• End-to-end ownership on a flat team: ~11-person flat eng org, no traditional manager layer; you own features as an IC and talk directly to customers.


• Genuinely hard backend problems: Unifying hundreds of fragmented legacy systems (SQL/DLL/API, built 20-40 years ago) under one API, real-time sync, millions of API requests/day, testing across 1,000+ endpoints.

Intake Call Summary

Intake exists as a video on the Contrario page and was not transcribed; the only intake-derived text available is the embedded hiring-manager quote in Red Flags and the role narrative below.

• Work is ~80-90% backend; full-stack but backend-weighted.


• Flat eng team: one engineering lead, a second being promoted internally; no specialization, everyone works across products.


• Ships daily based on direct customer feedback.


• Strong cultural emphasis on high ownership, intensity, in-person collaboration.

The Role

Agave is hiring full-stack/backend engineers who love simplifying complex systems, unifying fragmented data, and building large-scale infrastructure. You'll be hands-on with core backend systems syncing financial data across fragmented legacy software in real time (~80-90% backend).

What You'll Be Doing

• Build and maintain the unified API layer connecting construction ERPs to modern software (legacy SQL, DLL, and API-based systems from 20-40 years ago)


• Ship core backend systems for ERP Sync, AP Automation, Expense Management, and Vendor Management, with frontend work on apps that dog-food the API


• Solve real-time data sync challenges, including web-socket implementations for systems lacking native webhooks


• Build scalable testing frameworks to catch edge cases across 1,000+ endpoints


• Engage directly with customers and ship features daily based on real feedback

Tech stack: Not explicitly specified. Referenced technologies: AWS (cloud, preferred), SQL/DLL/API-based legacy systems, web-sockets, high-volume API infrastructure.

Requirements

• 1-5 years backend or full-stack engineering


• CS degree from top 20-30 school


• Cloud infrastructure: AWS preferred


• Startup or founding engineering experience


• High-ownership, low-ego operator

Green Flags

• Startup or founding engineering experience at pre-Seed through Series C. Demonstrates ability to ship in ambiguity and learn the chaotic pace Agave operates at.


• Top 20-30 school CS background, especially UWaterloo


• Serious athlete background (college or high school competitive sport). Strong correlation with discipline, time management, and high output.


• Multi-year tenure at a previous role. Signals follow-through and depth, not job-hopping.


• High GPA, meaningful academic awards, competitive extracurriculars (debate, etc.). Reliable signal for engineering rigor.

Red Flags

• Construction tech background on the SWE side. Carina direct: \"We want to avoid software engineers with construction backgrounds because we're looking for the best software engineers and they're probably not with a construction background.\" Hard exclude for SWE specifically.


• Big tech only (FAANG without startup tenure). Acceptable only if junior with 2 years or less of big-tech time.


• Laid off from last role for performance reasons. Hard exclude.


• Currently in-between roles. Hard exclude.


• Preference for work-life balance, work on trendy tech (LLMs, crypto), mobile, embedded, or front-end. Hard mismatch with Agave's culture and core backend focus.


• Not looking for new grads

Role Details

Salary$130,000-$240,000Equity0.2%-0.5%On-site policyIn-person 5 days/week in SF; remote only for exceptional candidates outside the Bay AreaVisa sponsorshipAvailable for exceptional candidates (H-1B, TN, and other visa types)Employment typeFull-timeLocationSan Francisco, CA

Screening Questions

Contrario \"Required Candidate Q&A\" form fields:

1. LinkedIn Profile URL


2. What city do you live in?

Interview Process

Stage 1 - Pending Approval — Candidate awaiting initial approval. Stage 2 - Screen 1 Stage 3 - Screen 2 Stage 4 - Screen 3: System Design Stage 5 - Screen 3: Behavioral Interview Stage 6 - [Placeholder] Review Candidate (appears to be an unconfigured platform stage) Stage 7 - Onsite Stage 8 - Offer Extended Stage 9 - Candidate Hired — Candidate accepts and starts.

Ideal Companies & Backgrounds

No Ideal Companies section was present on the role page.

Ideal Candidate Profiles

For reference only — do not source these specific profiles. Card titled \"Ideal Candidates -- DO NOT CONTACT.\" LinkedIn hrefs were not captured in the copied HTML (icon buttons only); names only below.

• Sebastian Danson — LinkedIn URL not captured


• Tan Aidan — LinkedIn URL not captured


• Jordan Chow — LinkedIn URL not captured

Rejected Candidate Feedback

• No substantive feedback on the page. Activity log shows one candidate \"rejected by company\" (~8 hours before capture, no reason given) and the \"Not looking for new grads\" red flag added ~2 days before capture.