Backend Engineer, Applied Agents – AI Platform for Life Sciences

MaxIT Consulting - Max Corporate Group; Los Altos (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

MaxIT Consulting is seeking a Backend Engineer, Applied Agents to design, build and operate the agent layer and backend systems powering AI-driven workflows in a drug development setting. You will work with Python, FastAPI, Postgres, vector databases, and RAG systems on-site in Los Altos, CA, collaborating with founders, domain experts, and early customers to deliver reliable, auditable AI solutions.

This on-site role requires relocation or residence in the Bay Area and authorization to work in

Qualifications

• 2+ years shipping production backend systems end to end.
• Strong API design, data modeling and reliability.
• Hands-on experience with LLM systems, RAG and vector databases.
• Experience with agent runtimes, tool calling and sandboxing.
• Ability to ship quickly with incomplete specs using AI coding tools daily.
• On-site in Los Altos, CA, Bay Area work authorization.

Responsibilities

• Build the agent runtime and harness, tool-calling infrastructure, sandboxed code execution and agent memory.
• Own reliability and observability of multi-step agent tasks.
• Design and build backend services and APIs on Python, FastAPI and Postgres.
• Design and operate vector databases, semantic search and RAG systems, tuning quality and latency.
• Build large-scale ingestion, cleaning and indexing pipelines for scientific and regulatory documents.
• Ground AI outputs in source data with traceable, verifiable citations.
• Work directly with founders, domain experts and early customers, owning outcomes.

Skills

Backend engineering

API design

Data modeling

Databases

System reliability

LLM systems

Agent runtime

Tool calling

Sandboxing

Tools

AWS

Terraform

Kubernetes

LangGraph

Claude Code

Cursor

Job description

Los Altos, CA (San Francisco Bay Area) | On-site | Full-time

MaxIT Consulting is looking for a Backend Engineer, Applied Agents to join a venture-backed, early-stage AI company building an AI-native operating system for drug development programs, already used by leading biopharma companies.

The Opportunity

You will design, build and operate the agent layer and the backend systems that power it: agents that carry out multi-step tasks inside real workflows, call tools reliably, run code in sandboxed environments, keep context and deliver verifiable results.

Key Responsibilities

• Build the agent runtime and harness, tool-calling infrastructure, sandboxed code execution and agent memory.


• Own reliability and observability of multi-step agent tasks.


• Design and build backend services and APIs on Python, FastAPI and Postgres.


• Design and operate vector databases, semantic search and RAG systems, tuning quality and latency.


• Build large-scale ingestion, cleaning and indexing pipelines for scientific and regulatory documents.


• Ground AI outputs in source data with traceable, verifiable citations.


• Work directly with founders, domain experts and early customers, owning outcomes.

Required Qualifications

• 2+ years shipping and operating production backend systems end to end.


• Strong fundamentals in API design, data modeling, databases and system reliability.


• Hands-on production experience with LLM systems: RAG, vector databases and agents.


• Has built, or deeply traced, an agent runtime or harness: tool calling, sandboxing, memory.


• Ships fast on incomplete specs and uses AI coding tools (Claude Code, Cursor) daily.

Nice to Have

• Built an in-house agentic harness or internal tools to boost a team's agentic development.


• LangGraph or agent frameworks in production; AWS, Terraform and Kubernetes.


• Enterprise SaaS, healthcare or life sciences products; seed or early-stage startup experience.

Work Arrangement

On-site role in Los Altos, CA (San Francisco Bay Area); fully remote is not possible. Candidates must live in or relocate to the Bay Area and must already be authorized to work in the United States.