Senior Backend Engineer

Kizen; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity Package

Healthcare Coverage

Professional Development Stipends

PTO

Career Growth Opportunities

Job summary

Kizen is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer in Austin, TX (in‑office 4x per week) to help build our next‑gen platform. You will work with the Director of Engineering to deliver reliable, scalable backend features and improve user outcomes for real customers.

Ideal candidates have 5–7+ years of professional Python development, experience shipping LLM‑enabled features, and a collaborative mindset. The role offers strong compensation and equity in a fast‑growing AI company.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher in a related field.
• 5–7+ years of professional development experience, Python preferred.
• Experience shipping LLM-enabled features in production.
• Exceptional collaboration, organizational, and communication skills.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity and adapt in a fast-changing environment.

Responsibilities

• Iteratively improve solutions with nondeterministic components using experiments.
• Collaborate with Engineering leaders to ensure reliability and maintainability.
• Partner with product to design feasible features and create actionable tickets.
• Work with Frontend teams to ensure polished user-facing experiences.
• Craft flexible, reliable, and scalable code.
• Write tests and evaluations to ensure stability as the codebase evolves.
• Tackle technical issues head on and plan for long-term success.

Skills

Python

LLM features

Collaboration

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Django

LangGraph

LiteLLM

Postgres

Redis

S3

Kubernetes

Job description

Location

Austin (Domain), TX (In-office 4x per week)

Company

Kizen, www.kizen.com

Senior Backend Engineer

About Us

Kizen is a leading AI platform redefining how people and AI seamlessly move and improve as one. Founded on the principle that technology should make work more meaningful, Kizen creates AI systems that learn, adapt, and improve over time, just like the people who use them.

Today, Kizen powers millions of mission‑critical experiences for leading organizations in highly regulated industries such as insurance, healthcare, and financial services. We help insurance agents manage contracting and commissions, enable healthcare providers to deliver proactive patient care, and empower financial institutions to classify documents and extract data automatically.

Our AI‑first platform is easy to adopt, scale, and trust, making it a destination for developers to build new applications and business teams to customize AI assistants, all in one place.

Join us in transforming how industries work, one person, one workflow, one AI assistant at a time!

About the Role

Want to help create the future of work? We're putting AI and intelligent automation to real use in the hands of real people.

We are looking for a hands‑on Senior Engineer who focuses on user outcomes and rapidly delivers reliable, scalable systems as we bring our next‑gen platform to the world.

As a Senior Backend Engineer, you will work directly with our Director of Engineering to build new user‑facing features and enhancements, and to scale the core Kizen platform with our users' growing needs.

Core Values

• Customer Obsessed – fanatical about making our customers wildly successful
• Fiercely Kind – treating all people with respect, compassion, and understanding
• Relentlessly Excellent – build amazing teams, act with urgency, and operate with transparency
• Amazingly Fun – create an enjoyable and collaborative environment

Key Responsibilities

• Iteratively improve solutions that use nondeterministic components using experimental methods
• Collaborate with Engineering leaders to ensure software is reliable and maintainable
• Partner with the product team to design feasible features, create consumable tickets, and assess implementation
• Work with the Frontend Engineering Team Lead(s) to ensure the user‑facing experience is polished and backend features are used as intended
• Craft flexible, reliable, and scalable code
• Write tests and evaluations to ensure stability as the codebase evolves
• Tackle technical issues head on: troubleshoot, create resolution plans, and address acute customer impacts while planning for long‑term success

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science (preferred), Information Technology, or related field (Physics, mathematics, engineering)
• Ability to facilitate a task’s entire lifecycle from product requirements to deployment
• 5–7+ years of professional development experience (Python preferred)
• Experience shipping LLM‑enabled features in production
• Exceptional collaboration, organizational, time‑management, and communication skills
• Ability to navigate ambiguity and adapt to a rapidly changing environment
• Driven and self‑motivated with a track record of solving difficult problems
• Eye for opportunity and creative optimization problems

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Django
• Experience with LangGraph, LiteLLM, or similar
• Working knowledge of an evaluation system
• Understanding of agentic best practices
• Experience implementing MCP Servers/Clients
• Experience with Postgres, Redis, S3, Memcache
• Experience deploying applications with Kubernetes
• Experience implementing RAG
• Contributions to open‑source projects and side projects

Why Kizen

We're a fast‑growing company that values innovation, growth, and continuous improvement. Join Kizen to shape the future of the company while enjoying a supportive, dynamic, and collaborative workplace. You’ll have opportunities for professional development, impact, and career advancement.

What We Offer

• Career Growth Opportunities
• Engaging Work Culture
• Top‑Tier Compensation
• Equity Package
• Healthcare Coverage
• Professional Development Stipends
• PTO

Equal‑Opportunity Employer

Kizen is an equal‑opportunity employer. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive culture that celebrates authenticity. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, protected veteran status, citizenship or immigration status, or any other legally protected characteristics. Kizen fully complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and embraces challenges to create an accessible, inclusive workplace for all individuals.

Compensation

Base salary range: $180,000–$220,000 USD. Total compensation may include additional equity and benefits. OTE: $207,000–$253,000 USD.

Visa Sponsorship

Not available for this role.