Backend Software Engineer

Stealth AI Startup; San Francisco (CA); Remote; USD 270,000 - 330,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Equity

Premium health, dental, and vision insurance

Flexible working environment

Job summary

A leading AI startup is seeking exceptional Backend Software Engineers to help architect, build, and scale the infrastructure behind their innovative AI systems. Candidates should have over 5 years of backend engineering experience and strong skills in languages like Python or Java. The role focuses on designing scalable backend systems and collaborating closely with research teams. This fully remote position offers a compensation package up to $300,000 plus equity and benefits, including comprehensive health insurance.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional backend software engineering experience.
• Strong proficiency in one or more backend programming languages.
• Deep experience in designing and operating distributed systems.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain scalable backend systems.
• Architect distributed systems for high throughput and reliability.
• Build robust APIs and internal tooling for AI model support.

Skills

Backend languages proficiency (Python, Go, Rust, Java, C++)

Designing and operating distributed systems

Understanding of databases and caching systems

Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)

Problem-solving ability

Strong communication skills

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Postgres

Redis

Kafka

Job description

Base Salary: Up to $300,000 + equity + benefits

About Us

We are a leading AI startup pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence. Our team includes world-class AI researchers and engineers from top universities and tech companies, working together to build foundational AI systems that redefine what’s possible. Backed by top-tier investors, we operate at startup speed with research-grade ambition.

We’re looking for exceptional Backend Software Engineers to help architect, build, and scale the infrastructure that powers our AI systems and products.

What You’ll Do

• Design, build, and maintain highly scalable backend systems that support cutting-edge AI research and production workloads.
• Architect distributed systems for high throughput, low latency, and reliability at scale.
• Build robust APIs, data pipelines, and internal tooling to support model training, evaluation, deployment, and monitoring.
• Collaborate closely with AI researchers, ML engineers, and product teams to translate research into production-grade systems.
• Optimize system performance, reliability, and cost-efficiency across large-scale compute environments.
• Drive engineering best practices including testing, documentation, observability, and CI/CD.

What We’re Looking For

• 5+ years of professional backend software engineering experience (or equivalent demonstrated expertise).
• Strong proficiency in one or more backend languages such as Python, Go, Rust, Java, or C++.
• Deep experience designing and operating distributed systems and APIs at scale.
• Strong understanding of databases, caching systems, and messaging systems (e.g., Postgres, Redis, Kafka, etc.).
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and containerized environments (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Excellent problem-solving ability and engineering judgment.
• Strong communication skills and a collaborative mindset.

Nice to Have

• Experience building infrastructure for ML/AI workloads.
• Familiarity with large-scale training systems, GPU orchestration, or model serving platforms.
• Experience at high-growth startups or top-tier technology companies.
• Open-source contributions or published technical work.

Why Join Us

• Compensation: Base salary up to $300,000, plus meaningful equity and comprehensive benefits.
• Impact: Work directly on core systems powering next-generation AI models.
• Team: Collaborate with world-class researchers and engineers.
• Growth: Rapid learning, technical ownership, and career acceleration.
• Flexibility: Fully remote role with a San Francisco-based listing.
• Competitive salary + equity
• Premium health, dental, and vision insurance