Software Engineer

Lantern; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Founding-era role

Own key systems

Impact on supply chain

Competitive compensation

Office in SF

Job summary

Lantern in San Francisco is building an AI-native operating system for wholesale distribution. We’re hiring a Software Engineer to build the platform that power distributors use to purchase and review recommendations.

You’ll work across the stack, from backend services to customer interfaces, and ship production-grade code in a small, fast-moving team. You’ll design APIs and data models, own features end-to-end, and collaborate with our CTO to scale reliability and performance as Lantern grows.

Qualifications

• 4–6 years building production software.
• Experience designing and shipping APIs, data models, and services that scale.
• Strong fundamentals and maintainable code.

Responsibilities

• Build and own core features end to end, from data models and APIs to customer interfaces.
• Design reliable backend services that integrate customer data, ML outputs, and purchasing workflows.
• Ship the tools distributors use daily to review recommendations, place orders, and manage inventory.
• Improve the product’s performance, reliability, and observability as Lantern scales.
• Turn customer workflows into repeatable, configuration-driven products and shape the platform architecture.

Skills

Production software

Full-stack or backend

APIs and data models

Cloud infra (AWS/GCP)

Python for ML support

Real-world data handling

BS/MS in CS or related

Education

BS/MS in CS or related

Tools

APIs

Job description

WHO WE ARE

Lantern is building the AI-native operating system for the $9T wholesale distribution industry. Billions of dollars sit tied up in stock, yet most distributors still buy on gut feel and spreadsheets. We partner with leading distributors to deliver precise, AI-powered purchasing recommendations that drive 30% leaner inventory, 10% higher sales, and 20+ hours saved per week per user. We’ve gone from $0 to $5M ARR in 8 months, raised $7M from top VCs, and are hitting hypergrowth.

THE ROLE

We’re hiring a Software Engineer to build the platform that distributors use to run their purchasing. Your systems will turn operational data and ML outputs into decisions that customers act on every day. The central challenge is making these experiences fast, reliable, and intuitive enough to trust with real money. You’ll work across the stack, from backend services and APIs to the interfaces where customers review recommendations and place orders. It’s a high-ownership role on a small team, working directly with our CTO to ship products that every customer relies on.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Build and own core features end to end, from data models and APIs to customer-facing interfaces.

• Design reliable backend services that integrate customer data, ML outputs, and purchasing workflows.

• Ship the tools distributors use daily to review recommendations, place orders, and manage inventory.

• Improve the product’s performance, reliability, and observability as Lantern scales across more customers.

• Turn customer-specific workflows into repeatable, configuration-driven products, and help shape the platform architecture.

WHAT YOU BRING

• 4–6 years building production software, ideally full-stack or backend-focused.

• Strong software engineering fundamentals and a bias for clean, maintainable, production-grade code.

• Experience designing and shipping APIs, data models, and services that scale.

• Deep proficiency in at least one modern, widely-used language, with cloud infrastructure (AWS or GCP) and relational databases. We care more about strong engineering fundamentals than a specific stack, and Python is a plus since it powers our ML platform.

• Comfort with messy, real-world data and ambiguous requirements.

• BS/MS in Computer Science or a related technical field.

NICE TO HAVE

• Supply chain, logistics, demand forecasting, or operations-adjacent experience.

• Experience building data-intensive or B2B products used by non-technical operators.

• Prior early-stage startup experience where you wore multiple hats.

WHAT YOU’LL GET

• A founding-era, high-impact role at a hyper growth startup.

• Own key systems that our customers rely on every single day.

• Make a massive positive impact across our entire supply chain and economy.

• Competitive compensation + meaningful equity.

• An office in San Francisco with a tight-knit founding team.

WHAT WE VALUE

We hire operators who own outcomes, combining sharp judgment with pragmatic execution and a willingness to do the unglamorous work. Hard work, humility, customer obsession, and pride in a job well done: the values our customers live by, and the values we hire for.