Backend/AI Engineer

Wanderboat AI; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Wanderboat AI in Sunnyvale, CA is hiring engineers to build the platform behind our AI-powered discovery products. You will own core backend systems, scalable APIs, data pipelines, and the infrastructure powering AI Agents and retrieval workflows.

Join a high-ownership role where you move fast, ship often, and directly impact product quality and user experiences. You will work with product and engineering to improve performance, reliability, and cost efficiency across our stack.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of backend or full-stack engineering experience.
• Proficiency in Python or Go.
• Experience building and operating production systems on AWS.
• Strong fundamentals in databases, distributed systems, containers, and deployment workflows.
• Familiarity with modern AI application architectures (RAG, tool calling, AI Agents, or LLM orchestration).
• Comfortable with ambiguity, fast iteration, and high ownership.
• Strong interest in AI and building ambitious new products.

Responsibilities

• Build and operate scalable backend systems and APIs.
• Develop infrastructure and services that support AI products in production.
• Build infrastructure and services powering AI Agents with planning, tool use, memory, and workflow automation.
• Develop backend systems for LLM-powered applications (retrieval, recommendation, AI-driven UX).
• Build and optimize retrieval pipelines and agent workflows for better accuracy, latency, and scalability.
• Build data ingestion systems, crawlers, and pipeline components.
• Work on discovery systems like search, ranking, recommendation, and personalization.
• Improve performance, reliability, observability, and cost efficiency across the stack.
• Collaborate with product and engineering to ship quickly and iterate often.

Skills

Backend engineering

Python

Go

AWS

Distributed systems

Databases

Containers

CI/CD

LLM architectures

AI applications

Tools

LangChain

LlamaIndex

Vector databases

LLM orchestration

Job description

Wanderboat is an AI-powered local discovery platform that helps people explore cities and find great places effortlessly. By combining conversational AI, interactive maps, and community-driven content, Wanderboat enables users to discover restaurants, attractions, and unique local experiences through simple, natural interactions.

We are building the next generation of AI-powered discovery, reimagining how people explore the world around them.

Our mission is to create immersive and personalized AI experiences that seamlessly integrate into users’ real-world activities.

About the Role

We’re hiring engineers to help build the platform behind our AI products.

This is a high-ownership role for people who want to work on real product and infrastructure problems, move fast, and have direct impact. You'll build core backend systems, scalable APIs, data pipelines, and the infrastructure behind our AI-powered products, including next-generation AI Agent capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Build and operate scalable, reliable backend systems and APIs.
• Develop infrastructure and services that support AI products in production.
• Build infrastructure and services that power AI Agents, enabling intelligent planning, tool use, memory, and workflow automation.
• Develop backend systems for LLM-powered applications, including retrieval, recommendation, and AI-driven user experiences.
• Build and optimize retrieval pipelines and agent workflows to improve the accuracy, latency, and scalability of AI products.
• Build data ingestion systems, including crawlers and pipeline components.
• Work on discovery-related systems such as search, ranking, recommendation, and personalization.
• Improve performance, reliability, observability, and cost efficiency across our stack.
• Partner closely with product and engineering to ship quickly and iterate often.

Requirements

• 3+ years of experience in backend or full-stack engineering.
• Strong proficiency in Python or Go.
• Experience building and operating production systems on AWS.
• Strong fundamentals in databases, distributed systems, containers, and deployment workflows.
• Familiarity with modern AI application architectures, including RAG, tool calling, AI Agents, or LLM orchestration frameworks.
• Comfortable with ambiguity, fast iteration, and high ownership.
• Strong interest in AI and building ambitious new products.

Bonus

• Experience with search, recommendation, or personalization systems.
• Experience building LLM-powered applications, AI Agents, or RAG systems.
• Familiarity with LangChain, LlamaIndex, vector databases, or similar AI infrastructure.
• Startup experience or experience building production AI systems at scale.

Compensation Range

The base salary for this full-time position, which spans multiple internal levels depending on qualifications, ranges between $150K - $250K plus benefits & equity.

Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including but not limited to experience and expertise in the requirements listed above.