Senior Software Engineer – Data & AI Systems

Henderson Scott; New York (NY); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Henderson Scott, an early-stage AI company in NYC, is building software for high-stakes real-world use. The team focuses on data and systems, with founders who previously scaled a technology business to a ~$100m exit.

They seek an engineer who has owned complex data-driven systems and can drive architecture from design to production. You’ll develop data-intensive backend systems and work on data ingestion, processing, storage, and retrieval.

Qualifications

• Experience designing and owning complex production systems.
• Strong backend skills with a data systems bias.
• Experience with data processing, streaming, distributed architectures.
• Exposure to LLMs, RAG, agents or agentic workflows.
• Comfortable using Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot or similar.

Responsibilities

• Design data-intensive backend systems.
• Own architecture around data ingestion, processing, storage and retrieval.
• Build distributed, event-driven and real-time systems.
• Develop the data foundations behind LLMs, agents and AI-powered workflows.
• Take loosely defined problems and turn them into production software.

Skills

Data systems

Backend development

Python

Data processing

Streaming

Distributed systems

LLMs/Agents

Production ownership

Architecture

Tools

Kafka

Spark

Flink

Airflow

Databricks

Kinesis

Job description

Senior Software Engineer – Data & AI Systems

We’re working with an early-stage AI company in NYC building software used in real-world, high-stakes environments.

The founders have done this before, taking a technology business from 0→1, scaling it successfully and through to a ~$100m exit. Now they’re building again and looking for another exceptional engineer to join the early team.

This hire is particularly focused on the data and systems side of the platform.

They’re looking for a strong software engineer with genuine depth around data processing, backend systems and architecture — someone who has personally owned complex systems, made the technical decisions and taken them through to production.

What you’ll be doing

• Design and build data-intensive backend systems
• Own architecture around data ingestion, processing, storage and retrieval
• Build distributed, event-driven and real-time systems
• Develop the data foundations behind LLMs, agents and AI-powered workflows
• Make decisions around scalability, reliability, latency and data quality
• Take loosely defined problems and turn them into production software
• Work directly with founders and users to understand what actually needs to be built
• Help shape the engineering practices and architecture the future team will inherit

What they’re looking for

• Strong hands-on software engineering experience with a clear data systems bias
• Experience personally designing and owning complex production systems
• Strong backend skills, ideally with Python
• Experience with data processing, streaming, distributed or event-driven architectures
• Exposure to technologies such as Kafka, Spark, Flink, Airflow, Databricks, Kinesis or similar
• Hands-on experience building with LLMs, RAG, agents or agentic workflows
• Comfortable using tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot or similar, while fully understanding and owning the code being produced
• Strong technical judgement and the ability to work independently when there isn’t an existing playbook

The kind of engineer they want

This isn’t a traditional Data Engineer position, and it isn’t a role where you’ll own one small part of a huge platform.

They’re particularly interested in engineers who have worked in startups, scale-ups, founding teams or other environments where individual ownership really matters.

The important thing is that you can point to complex systems and say:

"I designed that. I built it. I owned it in production."