Senior Software Engineer

constellation; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Relocation assistance

SF office in Mission District

Team dinners & events

Parental leave (12 weeks)

Conference sponsorship

Job summary

Constellation is building an AI-human translation layer. We seek a Senior Software Engineer to own backend data collection, ingesting multimodal data at TB scale with a hybrid on-prem and cloud infra. Collaborate with AI teams to design high-performance data infrastructure for training-ready datasets.

You will architect fault-tolerant ingestion, multi-process apps, and device abstraction layers, while optimizing storage and network performance to support scalable data workflows.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience shipping production-grade backend systems.

Responsibilities

• Architect a fault-tolerant data ingestion engine
• Write robust multi-process applications for concurrent data streams
• Architect a unified device abstraction layer for heterogeneous peripherals
• Optimize I/O bound operations, and monitor bandwidth/latency
• Define storage topology for TB-scale daily ingestion and fast indexing/retrieval
• Manage provisioning and configuration of on-premise servers
• Build synchronization of terabytes of data from edge to cloud

Skills

Python/Rust/C++/Go

High-performance messaging (ZeroMQ/Kaf

Cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP/Azure)

Data ingestion architecture

Video/Audio processing (FFmpeg/OpenCV)

Time-series DBs (TimescaleDB/InfluxDB/

Networking fundamentals

Parallel/multi-process development

Tools

ZeroMQ / Kafka / RabbitMQ / Redis Pub/Sub

AWS / GCP / Azure

FFmpeg / GStreamer / OpenCV

TimescaleDB / InfluxDB / ClickHouse

Job description

About Us

Constellation is creating the AI-human translation layer that ensures humanity evolves alongside our technology. Our mission is to leverage AI towards addressing deep and meaningful problems at the core of the human experience: empowering people towards their goals, augmenting our cognition and emotional wellness, and understanding ourselves and each other. Our path forward is to move away from AI that captures human knowledge towards AI that truly understands what it is to be human. We are generating the richest multimodal dataset ever collected to build a new class of foundation models and we're seeking the founding team of engineers to build the infrastructure that makes this ambitious future a reality.

The Role

We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer to build the backend for our data collection efforts. You will own the architecture that captures, buffers, processes, stores and retrieves our multimodal data. You will design a hybrid on-premise and cloud infrastructure that can support TB-scale data collected daily. You will also collaborate closely with our AI team to inform the design of the data infrastructure that will deliver high-performance, training-ready datasets for our foundation models.

Responsibilities

• Architect a fault-tolerant data ingestion engine capable of handling intermittent sensor connectivity, hardware failures, and network issues without data loss.

• Write robust multi-process applications to handle concurrent data streams.

• Architect a unified device abstraction layer to seamlessly ingest data from heterogeneous peripherals and network interfaces (USB, BLE, TCP/IP, etc).

• Optimize I/O bound operations, and track bandwidth and latency in the infrastructure.

• Define the storage topology for TB-scale daily ingestion. You will select efficient file formats for complex unstructured data (Video, Audio, Text, Timeseries) and design database schemas optimized for rapid indexing and retrieval.

• Manage the provisioning and configuration of our on-premise servers.

• Build the synchronization logic that moves terabytes of data from local edge buffers to our central cloud repository.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience shipping production-grade backend systems.

• Expert-level proficiency in Python, Rust, C++ or Go.

• Proficiency with high-performance messaging and queuing tools (e.g., ZeroMQ, Kafka, RabbitMQ, Redis Pub/Sub) for inter-process communication.

• Strong experience architecting and managing infrastructure on major cloud providers (AWS, GCP, or Azure).

• Experience implementing low-latency streaming protocols (WebRTC, RTSP, HLS) to transport live video and audio data over local networks. Proficiency with programmatic video processing (FFmpeg, GStreamer, OpenCV) and understanding of container formats, codecs (H.264/H.265), and keyframe alignment.

• Experience with high-performance data transfer techniques, such as zero-copy networking, shared memory (IPC), or memory-mapped files.

• Experience with time-series databases (e.g., TimescaleDB, InfluxDB, ClickHouse) and efficient file formats for data lakes (Parquet, Avro, Arrow). You understand the trade-offs between write-heavy and read-heavy optimization.

• Solid grasp of networking fundamentals.

• Demonstrably adaptable and excited about finding creative solutions to problems nobody has solved before.

• Passionate about positively imparting the well-being of humanity and not just capitalizing on it.

• You thrive in a high-bandwidth, collaborative environment.

Nice to Have

• Familiarity with the data requirements of modern ML frameworks (PyTorch/TensorFlow). You know how to build datasets that saturate GPU utilization (prefetching, shared memory, caching).

• Interest in neurotech, mental health, or human-AI interaction.

Benefits

• Comprehensive, high-quality health, dental, and vision insurance with premiums fully covered.

• A renovated, light-filled office with a quirky layout and full kitchen in the heart of San Francisco's Mission District, surrounded by world-class food and coffee.

• Relocation assistance for those joining us in SF and workspace setup stipend.

• Bi-monthly team dinners and outings, plus twice-yearly off-sites and retreats.

• Fully stocked kitchen (snacks!) and a dedicated meal budget.

• Sponsorship for travel to relevant conferences and regular professional development activities to help you level up.

• A minimum of 12 weeks of fully paid parental leave with a "soft-landing" transition back.

• Paid time off (PTO)