Senior Backend Cloud Engineer

Kaicyberinc; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Kai is seeking an experienced backend engineer to design and scale cloud-driven services in a fast-paced AI security environment. You will own microservices from architecture to production, partner with product and design teams, and champion IaC and CI/CD practices.

The role emphasizes building highly available backend systems, mentoring peers, and delivering secure, scalable APIs at machine-speed. Join Kai to redefine cybersecurity infrastructure.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience as a cloud or backend engineer.
• Experience designing and building microservices in a production cloud environment.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems with fault tolerance and scalability.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, building cloud backends and data pipelines.
• Design, build, and own microservices and distributed backend systems from architecture through deployment.
• Lead technical delivery from architecture to production operations.
• Work with product and design teams to deliver performant backend services and APIs.
• Champion software development best practices, including CI/CD and IaC.
• Ensure reliability, scalability, and maintainability of backend and cloud systems at production scale.
• Mentor engineers and foster a culture of ownership and continuous improvement.

Skills

Python

Golang

Distributed systems

API design

Cloud backend

CI/CD

Tools

AWS

Azure

Terraform

API Gateway

Lambda

RDS

DynamoDB

CDK

Kinesis

Job description

Kai is the AI company rebuilding cybersecurity for the machine-speed era. Founded by second time founders and trusted by Fortune 500 enterprises, Kai is building a future where security has no categories, no silos, and no human speed bottlenecks. The Kai Agentic AI Platform replaces fragmented, human-limited workflows with agentic AI systems that continuously contextualize, assess, reason, and execute security work at machine speed - making human defenders, superhuman.

Why Join Kai

Well-funded: With $125M raised, we have the capital, runway, and resolve to rebuild cybersecurity from first principles. Proven: We've earned the trust of Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies, and we're just getting started. Their confidence in Kai reflects what we've built: an AI-powered cybersecurity platform that performs at the scale and speed the enterprise demands. Experienced founders: Our founding team consists of second-time entrepreneurs, each with over 20 years of experience in the cybersecurity industry. Their proven expertise and vision drive our ambitious goals. World-class leadership team: Our Heads of AI, Engineering, and Product bring extensive experience from some of the world’s most influential companies, ensuring top-tier mentorship, direction, and vision. Frontier AI Applied Research Team: Our researchers operate at the leading edge of agentic AI systems, translating breakthrough capabilities into real-world cybersecurity applications. Generous compensation: We offer highly competitive salaries, equity options, and a supportive work environment. Your contributions will be valued and rewarded as we grow together.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, building cloud backends and data pipelines
• Design, build, and own microservices and distributed backend systems from architecture through deployment and production operations
• Lead technical delivery from architecture and design to implementation, testing, deployment, and operations
• Work with product and design teams to deliver performant and reliable backend services and APIs
• Champion software development best practices, including CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, observability, and test automation
• Ensure reliability, scalability, and maintainability of backend and cloud systems at production scale
• Mentor engineers and foster a culture of ownership, learning, and continuous improvement within the engineering team

Must Haves

• 7+ years of experience as a cloud or backend engineer
• Experience designing and building microservices in a production cloud environment
• Strong understanding of distributed systems — fault tolerance, consistency, and scalability at production scale
• Strong experience designing APIs and building asynchronous systems with robust error handling
• Hands-on experience with AWS, including serverless and cloud-native architectures
• Experience with Azure services and Infrastructure as Code tools, such as API Management, Azure Functions, Azure SQL Database, Cosmos DB, Azure Active Directory, or Bicep/Terraform
• Familiarity with data pipelines and cloud-native data streaming tools such as Kinesis
• Strong Python experience for backend services, automation, and tooling
• Golang development experience for backend services
• Experience with AWS services and Infrastructure-as-Code tools, such as API Gateway, Lambda, RDS, DynamoDB, IAM, and CDK
• Knowledge of observability, tracing, and system performance best practices for distributed backend systems
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate with distributed teams

Nice to Haves

• Experience with data streaming tools such as Kafka
• Experience operating at scale — high-throughput, data-intensive, or large-scale distributed systems
• Cybersecurity domain experience — IAM, access control, security-adjacent products, or experience building for security teams
• Designing access control systems, such as Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
• Experience with version control, CI/CD, and build systems (e.g., GitHub Actions)
• Familiarity with compliance and security standards such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR, or CPRA in cloud environments
• Startup experience and hustle

Why You'll Succeed

• You take ownership end-to-end — from architecture and design through deployment and production support
• You move fast without breaking things — high-velocity delivery with a track record to prove it
• You can mentor and elevate the engineers around you
• You thrive in ambiguity and can independently execute complex tasks with minimal direction

Kai is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, reproductive health decisions, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, political views or activity, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. By submitting your application, you acknowledge that Kai will process your personal data in accordance with Kai's Privacy Policy .