Backend Engineer, AI Systems

A1; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

A1 is hiring a Backend Engineer, AI, in Palo Alto to own the inference and orchestration layer powering AI interactions in our product. You will build and operate production systems that turn model capabilities into fast, stable APIs accessed by mobile and desktop clients.

You will design multi-step inference pipelines, manage tool calls and retries, and optimize routing, caching, batching, streaming, and state management to meet latency and throughput goals.

Qualifications

• Experience building backend systems for AI-powered features.
• Design and operate inference pipelines and orchestration layers.
• Strong emphasis on latency, reliability, and observability.

Responsibilities

• Build and operate backend systems that serve AI-powered features in production.
• Design inference pipelines and orchestration layers that handle multi-step workflows, tool calls, and retries.
• Manage the full lifecycle of AI requests: routing, caching, batching, streaming, and state management.
• Optimize latency, throughput, and cost across model inference and downstream systems.
• Design systems that remain reliable despite non-deterministic model behavior and external dependencies.
• Implement observability for AI systems, including logging, tracing, and debugging of model outputs and failures.
• Collaborate with ML and product teams to translate model capabilities into stable, production-grade APIs.

Skills

Python

NodeJs

Pytorch

OpenAI / Anthropic / open-source LLMs

SQL & NoSQL

Docker

Job description

There are over 5 billion users using basic applications today such email, notes, tasks that are not AI-native. Our mission is to build a proactive smart assistant for everyday users to bring intelligence to conversations, errands, organising and workflows, with minimal prompting.

Our product focuses on achieving high reliability for long-running workflows, persistent context, and real-world task completion. The system must handle multi-step reasoning, interact with external tools, and remain reliable despite non-deterministic model behavior. Our objective is to help users complete tasks daily enjoyable with over ~90%* reduced time.

Role

As a Backend Engineer, AI, you own the inference and orchestration layer that powers every AI interaction in the product. Your work sits between models and users, where latency, correctness, reliability, and cost directly impact real-world experience. Build and operate production systems that turn model capability into fast, stable, observable APIs used across mobile and desktop clients.

Focus

• Build and operate backend systems that serve AI-powered features in production.
• Design inference pipelines and orchestration layers that handle multi-step workflows, tool calls, and retries
• Manage the full lifecycle of AI requests: routing, caching, batching, streaming, and state management
• Optimize latency, throughput, and cost across model inference and downstream systems
• Design systems that remain reliable despite non-deterinistic model behavior and external dependencies
• Implement observability for AI systems, including logging, tracing, and debugging of model outputs and failures
• Collaborate with ML and product teams to translate model capabilities into stable, production-grade APIs

Ideal Experiences

• Experience running high-throughput, low-latency services.
• Familiarity with AI inference patterns (LLMs, embeddings, multimodal).
• Bias toward shipping and learning from production behavior.

Outcomes

• Backend systems run reliably at scale, handling production AI traffic with low latency and high throughput.
• Multi-step AI workflows complete successfully across tools and services, with robust handling of failures and retries
• APIs are stable, clear, and support seamless integration with frontend and ML systems.
• Production incidents are quickly detected, diagnosed, and resolved, minimizing user impact.
• Iterative improvements based on real usage continuously increase system performance and reliability.
• System design evolves to support increasing scale, complexity, and new AI capabilities without major rewrites.
• Python
• NodeJs
• Pytorch
• OpenAI / Anthropic / open-source LLMs
• SQl & noSQL
• Docker

How We Work

The best products today in the world were built by small, world class teams.

We are a high talent density and hands-on team. We make decisions collectively, move at rapid speed, striking a balance between shipping high quality work and learning.

Joining our team requires the ability to bring structure, exercise judgment, and execute independently. Our goal is to put in hands of our users a truly magical product