Staff Engineer

Clera; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Clera is seeking a foundational engineering leader to join our early-stage AI/data startup, collaborating directly with founding leadership to build core infrastructure powering real-time people data and AI agent platforms.

You will own end-to-end initiatives—from ambiguous problem framing to production deployment—shaping long-term technical strategy while shipping reliable, scalable systems at scale in Los Angeles.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional engineering experience with production shipping.
• Hands-on experience with Linux servers in production environments.
• Experience with agent orchestration, LLMs, or web scraping.
• Comfort with distributed systems, cloud infrastructure (AWS or GCP), data pipelines, and microservices.
• High agency and ability to thrive in ambiguity; startup founding experience is a plus.
• Must be authorized to work in the US; visa sponsorship not available.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate core infrastructure including APIs, LLM-powered workflows, scraping systems, and knowledge graph architecture.
• Architect and maintain production-grade systems for millions of API requests with performance, cost efficiency, and reliability.
• Own projects end-to-end from initial scoping through deployment and iteration.
• Collaborate directly with senior leadership on technical decisions, roadmap priorities, and architectural choices.
• Contribute across the stack with developer documentation, internal tooling, tutorials, and experimental builds that showcase APIs.

Skills

Production exp

Linux servers

LLMs

Web scraping

Distributed systems

Cloud AWS/GCP

Data pipelines

Microservices

Founding experience

US work authorized

Job description

About the Role

This is a foundational engineering role at an early-stage AI/data startup, working directly alongside founding leadership to build the core infrastructure powering a real-time people data and AI agent platform. You'll have genuine end-to-end ownership - from ambiguous problem definition through production deployment - and a direct hand in shaping long-term technical strategy.

What You'll Do

• Design, build, and operate core infrastructure including APIs, LLM-powered workflows, scraping systems, and large-scale knowledge graph architecture.

• Architect and maintain production-grade systems capable of handling millions of API requests, with a focus on performance, cost efficiency, and reliability across cloud and Linux server environments.

• Own projects end-to-end, from initial scoping through deployment and iteration, shipping quickly without compromising system integrity.

• Collaborate directly with senior leadership on technical decisions, roadmap priorities, and foundational architectural choices.

• Contribute broadly across the stack, including developer documentation, internal tooling, technical tutorials, and experimental builds that showcase and stress-test platform APIs.

What We're Looking For

• 10+ years of professional engineering experience with a strong track record of shipping to production at scale.

• Hands-on experience with Linux servers in production environments.

• Experience with agent orchestration, LLMs, or web scraping.

• Comfort working across distributed systems, cloud infrastructure (AWS or GCP), data pipelines, and microservices.

• High agency, first-principles thinking, and the ability to thrive in ambiguity.

• Background at a high-growth tech company or early-stage startup; prior founding experience is a strong plus.

• Must be authorized to work in the US - visa sponsorship is not available.

Compensation & Benefits

Salary range: $250,000 - $300,000 USD annually. Visa sponsorship is not available.

Location

On-site in Los Angeles, CA, United States.