Senior Backend Engineer - AI/Agentic Platform (Remote)

Handshake; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

401(k) match

Parental leave

Medical, dental, & vision

Wellness stipend

Learning stipend

Remote & Office SF

Flexible PTO

Team outings

Job summary

Handshake in San Francisco is hiring a Senior Software Engineer to join Backend Platform, focusing on supporting Handshake AI and internal AI initiatives. You will design, build, and operate backend services, APIs, and shared libraries in a full-stack TypeScript environment, with an emphasis on performance and reliability.

You will collaborate across Developer Platform teams, work on data models, and help evolve products for scalable AI-powered experiences while maintaining maintainable, secure

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, primarily in backend or platform engineering.
• Experience designing, building, and operating production services and APIs.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, data modeling, service boundaries, common backend architecture patterns, and reliability and performance tradeoffs.
• We strongly prefer candidates with deep TypeScript and Next.js experience. Because this work is primarily based in a full-stack TypeScript repository, you should be comfortable navigating the broader application and contributing across boundaries when necessary.
• Strong experience with relational databases, including schema design, query optimization, indexing, transactions, and diagnosing database-related performance problems. Experience with PostgreSQL is especially relevant.
• Familiarity with backend technologies such as Temporal, Redis, Elasticsearch, GraphQL, or event-driven systems.
• Experience operating services in cloud and containerized environments. Our broader platform uses technologies including GCP, Kubernetes, Terraform, and Docker.
• Practical knowledge of LLM-powered systems, including concepts such as model and tool integration, RAG, agent orchestration, prompt management, evaluation, and observability.
• A record of independently driving ambiguous projects from problem definition through production rollout.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to collaborate with product engineers and other teams across Developer Platform.
• Sound technical judgment and a preference for understandable, maintainable systems over unnecessary complexity.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate backend services and APIs that support HAI products and internal AI initiatives, primarily within our full-stack TypeScript repository.
• Develop shared libraries, services, and architectural patterns that reduce duplicated work and make backend systems easier to extend and operate.
• Improve the performance, scalability, reliability, and observability of HAI's backend systems.
• Lead work involving database design, data access patterns, query performance, indexing, caching, and the evolution of data models as products grow.
• Identify recurring product-engineering problems and turn the right ones into reusable platform capabilities and well-understood patterns.
• Make sound architectural decisions across mature systems and new services, balancing delivery speed, performance, maintainability, and operational cost.
• Contribute directly to internal AI initiatives, including shared capabilities used to build, evaluate, and operate LLM-powered and agentic systems.
• Partner with other teams in our Developer Platform group, including ML and Cloud Engineering, on model and service integration, orchestration, evaluation, observability, and failure handling.
• Participate in technical planning, design and code reviews, operational support, and incident response.
• Mentor other engineers and help establish practical backend engineering standards across HAI and internal AI initiatives.

Skills

Backend engineering

Distributed systems

TypeScript

Next.js

PostgreSQL

Relational databases

Cloud & containers

Kubernetes

Docker

Temporal

Redis

Elasticsearch

GraphQL

LLM-powered systems

Agent orchestration

Problem solving

Communication skills

Tools

GCP

Kubernetes

Terraform

Docker

Job description

Handshake in San Francisco is hiring a Senior Software Engineer to join Backend Platform, focusing on supporting Handshake AI and internal AI initiatives. You will design, build, and operate backend services, APIs, and shared libraries in a full-stack TypeScript environment, with an emphasis on performance and reliability.

You will collaborate across Developer Platform teams, work on data models, and help evolve products for scalable AI-powered experiences while maintaining maintainable, secure