Staff Engineer — AI-Powered Backend & API Lead

SonderMind; Portland (OR); On-site; USD 160,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous PTO

Holiday schedule aligned with U.S.

Free therapy coverage

Medical, Dental, Vision + HSA

Disability & life insurance

401(k) match

Company gatherings

Parental leave

Additional benefits

Job summary

SonderMind is seeking a Staff Engineer to own end-to-end features across backend services, agentic frameworks, AI pipelines, and front-end work. You’ll shape microservices architecture and collaborate with product, design, and QA. Experience with ML is a plus but not required, with strong API and database focus.

You’ll work on high-performance systems, solve complex problems, and mentor engineers while driving architectural improvements and scalable solutions.

Qualifications

• 8+ years building web services or full-stack applications.
• Strong hands-on experience in Ruby/Rails, TypeScript/Node, Python or similar backends.
• Deep understanding of APIs, PostgreSQL, and some performance tuning.
• Proven ability to balance short-term delivery with long-term technical investments.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain scalable Ruby/Rails, TypeScript/Node, and Python services and RESTful or gRPC APIs that integrate with agentic GenAI systems.
• Optimize MongoDB and PostgreSQL queries and service performance.
• Collaborate with cross-functional squads to define requirements and deliver features.
• Work on AI Agents, MCP servers and AI-enabled tools and frameworks; adapt to evolving technologies.

Skills

Ruby/Rails

TypeScript/Node

Python

APIs

Performance tuning

LLMs

Langchain

Tools

PostgreSQL

MongoDB

GitHub Copilot

Job description

SonderMind is seeking a Staff Engineer to own end-to-end features across backend services, agentic frameworks, AI pipelines, and front-end work. You’ll shape microservices architecture and collaborate with product, design, and QA. Experience with ML is a plus but not required, with strong API and database focus.

You’ll work on high-performance systems, solve complex problems, and mentor engineers while driving architectural improvements and scalable solutions.