Backend Engineer San Francisco

Mintlify; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); On-site; USD 170,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive pay

Equity

PTO 20 days

Wellness stipend

Health coverage

Free lunch/dinners

Team offsite

Job summary

Mintlify is hiring Backend Engineer to build the core systems behind our docs platform. You will design APIs, content pipelines, and AI infrastructure powering Mintlify products, collaborating with design and engineering and taking features from development through launch.

You will work on building backend systems end to end, scaling our content infrastructure, and powering AI experiences. Join a small, impact-driven team focused on craft, speed, and thoughtful execution.

Qualifications

• Experience in designing scalable backend systems and services.
• Strong understanding of APIs and data models in production.
• Experience with databases and data pipelines.
• Ability to ship features from development through launch.

Responsibilities

• Build backend systems end to end for Mintlify products.
• Scale content infrastructure ingesting and publishing content.
• Power AI experiences including search, retrieval, and AI infrastructure.
• Improve performance, caching, queues, databases, and observability.
• Shape product direction and engineering approaches across the stack.

Skills

Systems design

API architecture

Databases

Production systems

Customer interaction

Job description

Why Mintlify?

We're on a mission to empower builders.

• Massive reach: Our docs platform serves 100 million+ developers every year and powers documentation for 20,000+ companies, including Anthropic, Microsoft, PayPal, Spotify, Coinbase, X, and over 20% of the last YC batch.

• Small team, huge impact: We recently passed 65 employees and raised a $45 million Series B led by A16Z and Salesforce Ventures. Each new hire has a huge impact on shaping the company's trajectory.

• Culture of slope over y-intercept:

We grew in value faster than headcount and we’re looking to align the two quickly.

We’re looking for product-minded backend engineers to build the core systems behind Mintlify. You’ll tackle hard problems across content processing, AI retrieval, and infrastructure that powers thousands of documentation sites.

As a Backend Engineer, you’ll build the APIs, content pipelines, and AI infrastructure that power Mintlify’s products. You’ll collaborate across design and engineering, contribute to product and technical decisions, and take features from development through launch.

What you\'ll work on here

• Building backend systems end to end: Designing, implementing, and ship the APIs and services behind our editor, dashboard, and customer documentation sites

• Scaling our content infrastructure: Improve how we ingest, validate, transform, and publish content from thousands of customer repositories

• Powering AI experiences: Building the search, retrieval, and agent infrastructure behind our AI products

• Performance and reliability: Improving caching, queues, databases, and observability as our products and customer base grow

• Shaping product direction and engineering approaches across the stack

What you bring to the table

• You have strong experience with systems design, API architecture, databases, and production systems

• You have strong product intuition and care about the “why” as much as the “how” when building software

• You are adaptable and willing to work beyond the backend when needed to ship a feature.

• You appreciate a high degree of ownership and thrive when defining solutions rather than following a spec

• You’re eager to talk directly with customers and use those insights to shape what we build

Why you should join our engineering team

• You’ll solve technically ambitious backend problems alongside a team that values craft, speed, and thoughtful execution. Here’s a taste of what the team has built:

  • How we built a virtual filesystem for our Assistant

  • How we eliminated cold starts for 72M monthly page views with edge caching

  • What I shipped in my first 60 days at Mintlify

• Engineers here are product builders with high agency; you’ll drive change and have a voice in strategic decisions.

• You’ll have plenty of heads-down builder time on a small-but-mighty team where the best ideas win.

• We’ll find the intersection between what excites you and business priorities. You’ll own projects, ship, and see immediate impact.

Company Benefits:

• Competitive compensation and equity

• 20 days paid time off every year

• 401k or RRSP

• $420/month wellness stipend

• 100% coverage for Health, dental, vision

• Free Ubers to and from work

• Free lunch and dinners

• Annual team offsite (previously went to Alaska, Hawaii)