Senior Software Engineer

Xcede; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Xcede in San Francisco is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to help design and build the core backend and distributed systems powering our AI infrastructure platform. You will own services from design through production, focusing on scalability, observability, and secure, policy-driven operations.

You'll collaborate with founders, product, AI, and security teams in a fast-moving startup. The role offers ownership, technical influence, and a path to meaningful equity within a well-funded company.

Qualifications

• 5+ years building large-scale backend or distributed systems in production.
• Strong knowledge of distributed systems, scalability, APIs and cloud infrastructure.
• Experience owning services from design through production operations.
• Passion for building high-quality software in fast-moving startup environments.

Responsibilities

• Build the core backend and distributed systems powering the platform.
• Own critical infrastructure from architecture through production operations.
• Design scalable services that support identity, policy enforcement, observability, and AI agent lifecycle management.
• Mentor other engineers and collaborate with founders, product, AI, and security teams to shape the product and engineering culture.

Skills

Distributed systems

Backend architecture

Production ownership

Mentorship

Cloud infrastructure

Rust

Go

Python

TypeScript

Tools

Rust

Go

Python

TypeScript

AWS

GCP

Azure

Job description

Senior Software Engineer | Distributed Systems | AI Infrastructure | San Francisco

We're partnering with one of the most exciting early-stage AI infrastructure companies in Silicon Valley. Backed by leading investors and founded by engineers who believe autonomous AI agents will fundamentally reshape how enterprises operate, they're building the infrastructure layer that will make agentic AI secure, observable, and enterprise-ready.

As organizations increasingly deploy fleets of autonomous AI agents, entirely new challenges emerge around governance, trust, security, identity, and operational visibility. This team is building the platform that solves those problems a unified control plane that gives enterprises deep observability into AI agent behavior, enforces dynamic policies in real time, and enables organizations to safely deploy and scale AI systems across complex environments. Their technology sits at the intersection of distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, AI, and security, tackling problems that very few engineering teams are solving today.

They're now looking for a Senior Software Engineer to help build the core backend and distributed systems powering the platform. This is a highly technical role where you'll own critical infrastructure from architecture through production, designing scalable services that support identity, policy enforcement, observability, and AI agent lifecycle management. You'll make key architectural decisions, build cloud-native systems, mentor other engineers, and work closely with founders, product, AI, and security teams to shape both the product and the engineering culture.

Experience:

• 5+ years building large-scale backend or distributed systems in production.
• Strong experience with languages such as Rust, Go, Python, TypeScript or similar.
• Deep understanding of distributed systems, scalability, fault tolerance, APIs and cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP or Azure).
• Experience owning services from design through production operations.
• Passion for building high-quality software in fast-moving startup environments.

Bonus Experience:

• Event-driven architectures, messaging or streaming systems.
• Identity, authentication, authorization or policy engines.
• Security-sensitive or compliance-focused platforms.
• AI infrastructure, data platforms or observability tooling.

Why:

• Work on one of the most technically challenging problems emerging alongside enterprise AI adoption.
• Build foundational infrastructure that will power the next generation of autonomous AI applications.
• Join a small, exceptionally senior engineering team where you'll have significant ownership and influence.
• Partner directly with experienced founders on architecture and long-term technical strategy.
• Competitive compensation alongside meaningful equity in a well-funded startup.