Lead/Senior Backend Engineer - Distributed Systems/API - Applied AI

FICO; United States; On-site; USD 100,000 - 900,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Lead/Senior Backend Engineer to join their Applied AI team. This role is pivotal in designing and implementing scalable backend systems that drive AI capabilities across various products. You will work collaboratively with researchers and engineers to create robust APIs and services, ensuring system reliability and governance. The ideal candidate will possess extensive experience in building distributed systems and a strong coding background in languages like Python and Java. This position offers a unique opportunity to contribute to innovative AI solutions that enhance decision-making processes across diverse industries.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in building large scale backend services.
• Strong coding skills in Python, Go, or Java.
• Deep experience with scalable, fault-tolerant backend systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and implementation of scalable backend services.
• Collaborate with teams to implement microservices and APIs.
• Mentor engineering teams in backend architecture best practices.

Skills

Python

Go

Java

API Design

Distributed Systems

Problem-Solving

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Advanced degree preferred

Tools

AWS

GCP

Azure

Docker

Kubernetes

PostgreSQL

MySQL

Redis

DynamoDB

Prometheus

Grafana

Datadog

Job description

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FICO is a leading analytics and decision management company that empowers businesses and individuals around the world with data-driven insights. Known for pioneering the FICO Score, a standard in consumer credit risk assessment, FICO is also a prominent provider of software as a service to financial institutions where it combines advanced analytics, machine learning, and sophisticated algorithms to drive smarter, faster decisions across industries. From financial services to retail, insurance, and healthcare, FICO's innovative solutions help organizations make precise decisions, reduce risk, and enhance customer experiences. With a strong commitment to ethical use of AI and data, FICO is dedicated to improving financial access and inclusivity, fostering trust, and driving growth for a digitally evolving world.

The Opportunity

"As a Lead/Senior Backend Engineer on our Applied AI team, you will lead the design and implementation of scalable, robust, backend services and distributed systems that power advanced AI capabilities. Your work will drive critical functionalities across FICO’s platform, from fraud investigation and decision management to process flow automation and customer engagement. This role requires a forward-thinking mindset and a strong commitment to system reliability and robust governance, placing you at the core of FICO’s innovative, high-impact AI initiatives" - VP, AI Engineering

What You’ll Contribute

• You’ll play a key role in building a robust, scalable platform with distributed backend systems and APIs that power AI-enabled features across FICO’s products.
• Build and scale backend services and APIs that support high-throughput model inference and real-time AI features in production.
• Develop production-grade LLM-powered systems with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and Agentic Architectures to power next-generation AI features.
• Collaborate with researchers, ML engineers, and product teams to design and implement microservices and APIs that enable secure, low-latency access to AI capabilities.
• Implement robust guardrails, governance mechanisms, and observability features to maintain safe, auditable, and compliant use of generative AI systems, while proactively addressing system bottlenecks and failures.
• Define and monitor key quality metrics across AI models and systems to drive continuous improvement in performance, reliability, and user impact.
• Mentor engineering teams, driving best practices in backend architecture, distributed system design, and scalable service development.

What We’re Seeking

• Extensive experience building large scale backend services in production, with a proven track record of leading and delivering complex, large-scale distributed systems.
• Strong coding skills in Python, Go, Java, or similar languages.
• Deep experience building and maintaining scalable, fault-tolerant backend systems with high availability and low latency.
• Proficient in designing APIs and working with relational and NoSQL databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, DynamoDB).
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and container orchestration tools like Docker and Kubernetes.
• Good experience with system monitoring, tracing, and performance optimization tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog).
• Experience in integrating AI/ML solutions, with familiarity in Large Language Models (LLMs), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), and vector databases preferred.
• Exceptional problem-solving skills with the ability to mentor others and work cross-functionally with engineering, research, and product teams.
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Engineering, or a related field, an advanced degree preferred.

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Design, Information Technology, and Engineering

• Industries

  Software Development, Data Infrastructure and Analytics, and IT Services and IT Consulting

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