Senior Backend Engineer (AI Agent)

Commerce; Texas; Remote; USD 116,000 - 195,000; Full time

Job summary

Commerce is a remote-first company building a suite of conversational AI agents spanning the B2B commerce lifecycle. You’ll work in Go/Python on an orchestrator/sub-agent architecture, with emphasis on eval-driven quality and safe tool integration.

You’ll own design of AI agents, prompts, and API integrations, mentor engineers, and help ship GA-ready solutions for customers worldwide, while enjoying flexible work locations and competitive compensation.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of backend or full-stack software development experience with AI/LLM apps.
• Bachelor's degree in CS/EE/SW/CE/MIS or equivalent experience.
• Strong development skills in Go/Python/Ruby/PHP.
• Experience with LLMs in production systems (Gemini/OpenAI/etc).
• Experience with LLM evaluation: datasets, scorers, metrics.
• Strong prompt engineering, tool calling, and agent orchestration knowledge.
• Designing/building APIs (gRPC, GraphQL, REST) and integrating data.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and iterate AI agents in Go/Python with orchestrator/sub-agent architecture.
• Own eval-driven development: datasets, scorers, regression suites for quality metrics.
• Develop and refine prompts, model configurations; treat as versioned artifacts.
• Integrate agents with MCP servers and backend tools with safe contracts and guardrails.
• Instrument agents with tracing, metrics, and cost tracking to drive quality.
• Collaborate with product/design and frontend to deliver intuitive conversational UX.
• Build PoC agents quickly, then harden to GA quality.
• Drive architecture decisions and mentor other engineers in agent engineering.

Skills

Backend development

Go/Python/Ruby/PHP

LLMs production

APIs design (gRPC/REST/GraphQL)

MCP/LLM tool integrations

Prompt engineering

Problem solving

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/EE/SW/CE/MIS

Tools

Google ADK

Braintrust

LangSmith

LangChain

Semantic Kernel

Job description

Welcome to the Agentic Commerce Era

At Commerce, our mission is to empower businesses to innovate, grow, and thrive with our open, AI-driven commerce ecosystem. As the parent company of BigCommerce, Feedonomics, and Makeswift, we connect the tools and systems that power growth, enabling businesses to unlock the full potential of their data, deliver seamless and personalized experiences across every channel, and adapt swiftly to an ever-changing market. We believe in harnessing AI responsibly to unlock new possibilities, and we’re looking for individuals who use it intentionally to solve problems, accelerate outcomes, and expand what’s possible in their role. Our purpose is to help businesses confidently solve complex commerce challenges so they can build smarter, adapt faster, and grow on their own terms. If you want to be part of a team of bold builders, sharp thinkers, and technical trailblazers who shape the future of commerce, this is the place for you.

BigCommerce is building a new team to deliver a suite of conversational AI agents spanning the B2B commerce lifecycle — Product Discovery, Pricing & Quoting, Order Automation, Fulfillment & Delivery, and Post-Sale Support. The agents are built in Go on Google ADK with Gemini, with evaluation infrastructure in Braintrust and a streaming AG-UI frontend.

As a Senior Backend Engineer specializing in AI agents, you will design the agents themselves: orchestration, sub-agent architecture, tool integration, prompt engineering, and — critically — the evaluation discipline that determines whether these agents are trustworthy enough to ship. Agent quality in this domain is won on evals, not just code, and you will own that practice for the team.

BigCommerce, part of the Commerce brand family, helps merchants increase sales at every stage of their growth. From small startups to mid-market businesses and large enterprises, we provide the leading e-commerce platform. Our customers can then concentrate on what’s most important: growing their businesses. We enable our customers to build, innovate, and grow, collectively reshaping the e-commerce industry.

What You’ll Do

• Design, build, and iterate on AI agents in Go/Python using an orchestrator/sub-agent architecture, covering intent interpretation, delegation, and safe action execution
• Own eval-driven development: build and maintain golden datasets, scorers, and regression suites (Braintrust or similar) for critical quality metrics such as discovery recall and quote accuracy
• Develop and refine prompts, model configurations; treat prompts and model settings as versioned, tested artifacts
• Integrate agents with MCP servers and backend tools, defining safe tool-call contracts, approval flows for write actions, and guardrails against prompt injection and abuse
• Instrument agents with tracing, metrics, and cost tracking; use production signals to drive quality improvements
• Collaborate with product designers and frontend engineers to deliver intuitive, useful conversational experiences
• Quickly build proof-of-concept agents to validate user stories, then harden them to GA quality
• Drive architecture decisions on ambiguous problems and mentor other engineers in agent engineering practices

Who Are You

• 5+ years of experience in backend or full-stack software development, with hands-on experience building agentic AI/LLM applications
• Education: Preferred minimum Bachelor's degree in CS, EE, SW, CE, MIS; or equivalent experience
• Strong and proven development skills in any major language (Go/Python/Ruby/PHP)
• Experience working with LLMs (Gemini, Anthropic, OpenAI, etc.) in production systems
• Experience with LLM evaluation: building datasets, defining scorers/metrics, and using eval results to drive iteration
• Strong understanding of prompt engineering, tool/function calling, and agent orchestration patterns
• Deep experience designing and building APIs (gRPC, GraphQL, REST) and integrating data across systems
• Hands-on experience building MCP servers or LLM tool integrations
• Excellent problem-solving skills and ability to work in a fast-paced, exploratory environment
• Strong collaboration and communication skills in cross-functional teams
• Strong preference toward execution and delivery

Preferred

• Experience with agent frameworks (Google ADK, LangChain/LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, or similar)
• Experience with evaluation/observability platforms (Braintrust, LangSmith, or similar)
• Experience with RAG systems and retrieval quality tuning
• Experience with e-commerce platforms or SaaS product development
• Background in conversational AI or natural language processing

(Pay Transparency Range: $116,000.00 - $195,000.00)

Work Where You Thrive

Commerce is a remote-first company. For team members in Austin, Atlanta, and London, we offer optional collaborative workspaces for team gatherings, workshops, and in-person connection. Use them whenever they’re helpful, balancing focused individual work with meaningful in-person collaboration.

Compensation Transparency

The national base salary range for this role is posted above in this job post.

Final compensation will be determined based on factors such as relevant experience, skills, qualifications and geographic location. We also consider internal equity to help ensure fair and consistent pay practices across our teams.

Where applicable, this role may also be eligible for variable compensation (such as bonus or commission), equity, and benefits in accordance with local policies. Details will be shared during the hiring process. We are committed to equitable and transparent pay practices that align to market data, internal equity, and individual contribution.

Inclusion and Belonging

At Commerce, we believe that celebrating the unique histories, perspectives and abilities of every employee makes a difference for our company, our customers and our community. We are an equal opportunity employer and the inclusive atmosphere we build together will make room for every person to contribute, grow and thrive.

We are committed to creating an inclusive and accessible hiring experience for all candidates. If you require accommodations or adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process, please let us know and we will work with you to meet your needs.

Learn more about the Commerce team, culture and benefits at https://www.commerce.com/careers/

Identity Verification

To protect our candidates and company from fraudulent activity, our interview process includes a government ID and biometric verification via Persona, our trusted identity verification provider. All information is collected and processed securely in accordance with applicable privacy laws.