Backend Engineer

SproutsAI; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Founding-team equity

Job summary

SproutsAI in San Jose is seeking a talented backend developer to own critical parts of their AI security platform. You will work on the entity graph, integrations layer with Okta and AWS, and policy APIs. This role involves building systems that customers rely on, with your code shipping to production.

The ideal candidate has experience in Go, Python, or Java, and is comfortable designing systems under uncertainty. The position offers a hybrid work model with a competitive salary range of $170–200K and equity for founding-team members.

Qualifications

• Have built and operated backend systems that real customers depended on.
• Strong programming skills in Go, Python, or Java.
• Ability to design data models under ambiguity.

Responsibilities

• Own a major surface area from day one.
• Develop the entity graph and integrations layer.
• Build policy and audit APIs.

Skills

Building and operating backend systems

Strong in Go or Python or Java

Designing data models under ambiguity

Graph experience

Job description

Overview

Seed-stage Enterprise Security — AI Agents. AI agents are starting to take real actions inside companies — calling APIs, touching production data, executing workflows. Security teams have no way to see what they`re doing, let alone control it. We`re building the runtime that sits between agents and the systems they touch — and helping define a new category in the process.

What you’ll build

You’ll own a major surface area from day one

• The entity graph — a real-time model of every user, agent, resource, and action across a customer`s environment
• The integrations layer that keeps it in sync with Okta, AWS, and the rest of the identity and cloud stack
• The policy and audit APIs that decide, in milliseconds, whether an agent gets to make a call — and prove it later

A policy engine is only as good as the world model it reasons over, so we`re building both. Your code ships to paying customers, not a demo.

You

You`ll be hands-on with building backend systems that real customers depend on and contribute to a product from day one.

• Have built and operated backend systems that real customers depended on
• Strong in Go or Python or Java
• Comfortable designing data models under ambiguity — graph experience is a plus
• Turn vague problems into simple, reliable systems

Bonus

Background in security, identity, or infrastructure; experience with agents or tool-calling systems.

Us

Repeat founders, previously in leadership at Lacework and ShiftRight. Backed by tier-1 investors. Small team shipping the first version now.

Comp & logistics

$170–200K base

• Meaningful founding-team equity

San Jose

• Hybrid