Senior Software Engineer, Infrastructure/Platform

David Joseph & Company; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Job summary

David Joseph & Company is seeking a senior, highly technical engineer to design and build the core infrastructure that powers data generation, evaluation, and AI experimentation at scale. You will own system architecture and engineering standards, collaborating with the founding team to shape the platform's direction.

The role emphasizes ownership of distributed systems, observability, and end-to-end reliability across data pipelines and compute infrastructure, with opportunities for meaningful

Qualifications

• 5+ years building and owning production distributed systems or platform infrastructure.
• Strong backend proficiency in Python and/or JavaScript (Node.js/Next.js).
• Cloud infrastructure experience in GCP or AWS.
• Message queues and event-driven systems (Kafka, RabbitMQ, Pub/Sub).
• High-throughput data pipelines and asynchronous processing.
• System scalability, performance, and reliability ownership.
• Shared infrastructure, APIs, and internal platform development.
• Observability, monitoring, and fault tolerance design.
• Long-term architecture ownership across data pipelines, compute, and storage.
• Cross-functional collaboration with engineering and research teams.
• Undergraduate degree from the U.S., Canada, or the U.K.

Responsibilities

• Architect and develop shared infrastructure for data generation platforms and evaluation pipelines.
• Build systems for large-scale datasets with high throughput and reliability.
• Create reusable infrastructure and APIs for engineers and researchers.
• Design systems with strong observability and fault tolerance for production workloads.
• Define long-term architecture across data pipelines, compute, and storage.
• Collaborate with engineers and researchers to support experimentation workflows.

Skills

Distributed systems

Backend development

Python/JavaScript

High-throughput data pipelines

Observability/Monitoring

System scalability & reliability

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree (US/Canada/UK)

Tools

Kafka

RabbitMQ

Pub/Sub

GCP

AWS

Job description

San Francisco, CA · On-site · Full-time
Compensation: $250,000–$350,000 + competitive equity

About the Company

A well-funded AI research lab (Series A) that builds the data-generation, evaluation, and agentic infrastructure used to train frontier AI models, with leading foundation-model labs among its customers. Backed by top-tier venture investors and prominent AI-industry angels, with a founding team drawn from leading quant firms, big tech, and top AI research labs.
Founded 2025 · 11–50 people · Industry: AI research / data infrastructure

The Role

Design and build the core infrastructure powering the company's data generation, evaluation, and agentic systems — the shared platforms that let engineers and researchers run large-scale human-in-the-loop workflows, evaluation harnesses, and automated data pipelines. A highly technical role with broad ownership, working directly with the founding team to define system architecture and engineering standards.

What you'll be doing

• Architect and develop the shared infrastructure powering data generation platforms, human-in-the-loop systems, and evaluation pipelines
• Build systems capable of processing large-scale datasets and high-throughput workloads with strong reliability guarantees
• Create reusable infrastructure and APIs that let product engineers and researchers build quickly and reliably on top of core systems
• Design systems with strong observability, monitoring, and fault tolerance for production workloads at scale
• Help define long-term system architecture across data pipelines, compute infrastructure, task orchestration, and storage systems
• Work closely with engineers and researchers to support new AI experimentation workflows and platform capabilities
• Define standards for system design, deployment, reliability, and infrastructure operations

Tech stack: Python and/or JavaScript (Node.js/Next.js); GCP or AWS; message queues / event-driven systems (Kafka, RabbitMQ, Pub/Sub)

Requirements

• 5+ years building and owning production distributed systems or platform infrastructure
• Strong backend proficiency in Python and/or JavaScript (Node.js/Next.js)
• Cloud infrastructure experience in GCP or AWS
• Message queues and event-driven systems (Kafka, RabbitMQ, Pub/Sub)
• High-throughput data pipelines and asynchronous processing
• System scalability, performance, and reliability ownership
• Shared infrastructure, APIs, and internal platform development
• Observability, monitoring, and fault tolerance design
• Long-term architecture ownership across data pipelines, compute, and storage
• Cross-functional collaboration with engineering and research teams
• Undergraduate degree from the U.S., Canada, or the U.K

Green Flags

• Background at FAANG, Jane Street, Citadel, Stripe, Ramp, or top-tier YC company
• Has architected and owned production infrastructure end-to-end at scale
• Experience building internal developer platforms or shared infrastructure at senior level
• Experience with AI infrastructure, LLM evaluation systems, or ML pipelines
• Has scaled early infrastructure at a high-growth startup
• Experience designing human-in-the-loop or workflow orchestration systems
• Defined architecture decisions and set engineering standards, not just executed them

Red Flags

• Only mid-level or IC contributor experience with no architectural ownership
• Background exclusively at large legacy enterprises or slow-moving companies
• Has never owned a production system end-to-end
• No cloud infrastructure depth in GCP or AWS
• No experience with high-throughput or distributed systems
• Under 5 years of experience

Why Join

• The infrastructure you build directly powers data generation and evaluation for leading foundation-model labs
• Broad, foundational ownership: architect the core systems the whole company depends on, working directly with the founding team
• Opportunity to shape the engineering organization and lead major technical initiatives as the company scales
• Meaningful equity alongside world‑class engineers and researchers

Details

• Location: San Francisco, CA
• Work policy: On-site
• Compensation: $250,000–$350,000 + equity
• Visa sponsorship: None available
• Employment type: Full-time