Junior Backend Engineer — AI-Driven, Hybrid, Equity & PTO

Tavern Research; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Unlimited PTO

Office closed for federal holidays

Equity

Job summary

Tavern Research in Chicago is hiring an Engineer I to build production software, instrument experiments, and contribute to sentiment measurement and survey tooling. You’ll work closely with senior engineers, write tests, and help ship features that have real-world impact.

We value hands-on learners who can grow quickly with AI-assisted workflows. This is an in-person role with opportunities to contribute to fast-moving political tech projects.

Qualifications

• 0-2+ years of relevant experience, demonstrated ability over tenure.
• Experience with LLMs or AI-assisted systems.
• Experience building backend systems with databases, APIs, and infrastructure.
• Familiarity with social platform APIs, data pipelines, or measurement systems a plus.
• Experience with modern development tools such as Docker, Git, and CI/CD.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and priorities in a fast-moving environment.
• Degree not required; we value capability over credentials.

Responsibilities

• Translate product and internal requirements into clean, functioning code that ships to production.
• Work closely with the engineering team to implement solutions, write unit tests, and participate in code reviews.
• Troubleshoot and resolve issues in production, contributing to stability and reliability of our tools.
• Use LLMs and AI coding tools to accelerate development and expand technical skill set.
• Actively participate in planning, stand-ups, and retrospectives to improve how we build and ship software.

Skills

LLMs/AI

Backend development

Databases & APIs

Docker

Git

CI/CD

Tools

Docker

Git

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

Tavern Research in Chicago is hiring an Engineer I to build production software, instrument experiments, and contribute to sentiment measurement and survey tooling. You’ll work closely with senior engineers, write tests, and help ship features that have real-world impact.

We value hands-on learners who can grow quickly with AI-assisted workflows. This is an in-person role with opportunities to contribute to fast-moving political tech projects.