Senior Software Engineer, Backend

Recruiting from Scratch; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive equity package

Profit share bonus

Job summary

Recruiting from Scratch is seeking a Senior Software Engineer, Backend (Infrastructure) to design and scale core backend systems powering AI data workflows. You will own critical services end‑to‑end, optimize performance, and drive reliable deployments in cloud environments.

The role emphasizes strong backend and infrastructure experience, with collaboration across product and engineering teams and a pathway to mentorship within a high‑growth startup.

Qualifications

• 5–8 years of software engineering experience and backend/infrastructure focus.
• Experience building and operating production systems in cloud environments.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems and high‑throughput workloads.
• Ability to own critical systems from design through production.

Responsibilities

• Design and build core infrastructure powering data generation and AI pipelines.
• Own scalability, reliability, and performance of backend systems.
• Architect distributed systems for high throughput and large datasets.
• Collaborate with product and vertical teams to enable rapid development.
• Establish best practices for design, observability and deployment.
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to a high‑performance culture.
• Work across the stack when needed and take ownership end‑to‑end.

Skills

Backend development

Distributed systems

Cloud environments

Python

Node.js

Kubernetes

Kafka

Redis

System design

Startup experience

Ownership & autonomy

Education

CS or related field

Tools

Kubernetes

Kafka

Redis

AWS

GCP

Job description

Title of Role

Senior Software Engineer, Backend (Infrastructure)

Company Stage of Funding

Early-stage (recently raised ~$30M+, Series A upcoming)

Office Type

On‑site (5 days/week)

Salary

$250,000 – $300,000 + Competitive Equity + Bonus (profit share)

Company Description

Our client is a rapidly growing AI infrastructure company building the backbone for next‑generation agentic systems and data workflows. They are working at the frontier of AI by enabling large‑scale data generation, evaluation pipelines, and human‑in‑the‑loop systems that power advanced machine learning models.

The company is already generating significant revenue with strong growth and is collaborating with leading AI labs and high‑growth startups. With a highly technical and talent‑dense team, they are tackling some of the most complex infrastructure challenges in AI today.

Operating across domains like healthcare and finance, they are building scalable systems to support massive data throughput and real‑time processing—positioning themselves as a key infrastructure layer in the evolving AI ecosystem.

What You Will Do

• Design and build core infrastructure powering data generation, evaluation pipelines, and AI systems
• Own scalability, reliability, and performance of foundational backend systems
• Architect distributed systems to handle high‑throughput, large‑scale datasets
• Collaborate with product and vertical engineering teams to enable rapid development
• Establish best practices for system design, observability, and deployment
• Improve infrastructure for real‑time and batch processing workloads
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to a high‑performance engineering culture
• Work across the stack when needed (backend‑heavy with some full‑stack exposure)
• Take ownership of critical systems from design through production

Ideal Candidate Background

• 5–8 years of software engineering experience
• Strong backend and infrastructure experience (distributed systems, scalability, reliability)
• Experience building and operating production systems in cloud environments (AWS or GCP)
• Proficiency in languages such as Python or Node.js
• Experience with modern infrastructure tools (Kubernetes, Kafka, Redis, etc.)
• Strong understanding of system design, data architecture, and high‑throughput systems
• Experience working in startup or high‑growth environments
• Ability to operate independently and take ownership of critical systems

Preferred

• Experience working on data infrastructure, ML pipelines, or human‑in‑the‑loop systems
• Background at high‑growth startups, data platforms, or quantitative environments
• Experience with real‑time systems, event pipelines, or streaming architectures
• Familiarity with Elasticsearch or large‑scale search/indexing systems
• Strong academic background in computer science or related field
• Experience mentoring engineers or acting as a technical leader

Compensation and Benefits

• Competitive equity package
• Performance‑based bonus (profit share upside)
• Opportunity to work on cutting‑edge AI infrastructure
• High ownership and impact as an early engineering hire
• Work alongside a highly technical and talent‑dense team
• Fast‑growing company with strong revenue traction