Staff Engineer (Backend, DevOps, Infrastructure)

Zuma ⚡; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Great health insurance, dental, and vision

Gym and workspace stipends

Computer and workspace enhancements

Unlimited PTO

Company off-sites with the team

Job summary

Zuma ⚡ is searching for a Staff Engineer in San Francisco, CA, to lead the development of an AI-powered platform transforming the rental market. You will design and optimize scalable systems while directly influencing customer engagement through innovative technologies.

Your expertise in backend development and cloud infrastructure will shape our architecture, ensuring reliable performance for thousands of communities. Join us in redefining property management interactions and enjoy significant perks like equity in a high-growth startup.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience building production-grade software systems.
• Proven expertise in backend development, API design, and cloud-based services.
• Familiarity with building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines and automated testing.

Responsibilities

• Lead critical system rewrites for a scalable architecture.
• Own design and performance optimization of data storage systems.
• Build and evolve deployment pipelines for AI-first products.

Skills

Backend development with Node.js

Cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP)

Database design and performance tuning

CI/CD and DevOps practices

Strong communication skills

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

Tools

Terraform

Pulumi

Job description

About Zuma

Zuma is pioneering the future of agentic AI and our focus is to transform the rental market experience for consumers and property managers alike. Our innovative platform is engineered from the ground up to boost operations efficiency and enhance support capabilities for property management businesses across the US and Canada, a $200B market. Off the back of our Series‑A in early 2024, Zuma is scaling rapidly. Achieving our vision requires a team of passionate, innovative individuals eager to leverage technology to redefine customer‑business interactions. We’re on the hunt for exceptional talent ready to join our mission and contribute to building a groundbreaking technology that reshapes how businesses engage with customers.

As a Staff Engineer, you will

Help define how humans collaborate with intelligent systems in one of the largest and most underserved industries in the world: property management. You’ll shape the technical foundation of a platform that is not just supporting human workflows, but executing them autonomously through AI agents. This is a rare opportunity to influence how an entire industry evolves, building tools that transform repetitive operational tasks into seamless, intelligent experiences. Your work will directly contribute to how trust is built between humans and machines, how operations scale without added headcount, and how residents and staff experience a new, AI‑powered standard of service. We’re not just building software; we’re designing AI that people want to work with—delightful, trustworthy, and deeply effective. Join us to help lead the AI revolution in multifamily, drive meaningful real‑world impact, and be part of reimagining what work can feel like when done side‑by‑side with intelligent agents. You will be a cornerstone of our engineering organization, reporting to the VPE. This is a pivotal role where you'll lead critical system rewrites, architect scalable foundations for our AI platform, and establish the technical standards that will shape our engineering culture for years to come.

Why This Could Be Your Dream Role

• You’ll work directly with cutting‑edge LLM technology in a real‑world application
• You want to work at a company where customers feel your impact every day
• You’ll architect AI‑powered systems that are transforming the real estate industry
• You’ll have autonomy to design and implement innovative technical solutions
• Your work will directly impact thousands of apartment communities and millions of renters
• You’ll receive significant equity in a venture‑backed company with strong traction
• As we scale, your role and influence will grow with the company

Why You Might Want to Think Twice

• This is a demanding role that will often require extended hours and deep commitment
• As a founding team member, you’ll need to wear multiple hats and step outside your comfort zone
• You’ll need to make thoughtful tradeoffs between innovation and immediate needs
• You’ll interact directly with customers to understand their needs and occasionally travel to their offices
• We’re a startup—priorities can shift rapidly as we respond to market opportunities and customer needs
• If you’re not comfortable getting your hands dirty with legacy code or speaking directly with customers, this isn’t the job for you

Responsibilities

• Lead critical system rewrites to transform our architecture into a highly scalable, resilient foundation
• Own the design and performance optimization of our data storage systems, ensuring they scale with customer and AI demands
• Build and evolve our deployment pipelines, enabling reliable, automated releases for AI‑first products
• Set up and manage modern cloud infrastructure from scratch, leveraging Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to ensure consistency, security, and scalability
• Establish engineering best practices, including observability, incident response processes, and system hardening for an AI‑first platform
• Drive robust analytics and monitoring to track performance, reliability, and the effectiveness of our AI solutions
• Mentor engineers and elevate the team’s capabilities across infrastructure, scalability, and AI product development

Your Experience Looks Like

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field
• 5+ years of experience building production‑grade software systems, with a focus on scalability, performance, and reliability
• Proven expertise in backend development with Node.js, including API design, system architecture, and cloud‑based services
• Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or similar) and deploying production systems using Infrastructure as Code (e.g., Terraform, Pulumi)
• Hands‑on experience with database design, performance tuning, and scaling high‑throughput data systems
• Familiarity with building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and modern DevOps practices
• Strong communication skills and ability to work effectively in a distributed, fast‑paced environment
• Comfortable operating in early‑stage, high‑ownership environments with evolving requirements
• Bonus: Experience with React and TypeScript on the frontend, though this role leans backend/infrastructure
• Bonus: Exposure to LLM‑based systems, AI infrastructure, or agentic AI workflows

Guiding Principles

Customer‑First Outcomes

Every commit should trace back to resident or operator value. Whether it’s a new feature, infra investment, or AI capability, if it doesn’t solve a real problem, it doesn’t ship.

Bias for Simplicity

We favor composable primitives over clever abstractions. Open standards, clean APIs, and clear contracts win over custom complexity, even if the custom version is cooler.

Quality Is a Gate, Not an After‑Thought

Quality is built‑in from day one. Our definition of done includes: test coverage, performance checks, basic observability, and internal docs. Shipping fast doesn’t mean skipping craftsmanship.

Data‑Driven Choices

We use data to guide, not paralyze, our decision‑making. We track leading indicators (cycle time, defect rate, NPS) and lagging signals (retention, revenue impact). We keep instrumentation lightweight but meaningful signal over spreadsheet.

Transparency & Written Culture

Good ideas don’t expire in Zoom. We operate in public inside the company, TDDs, PR reviews, and Linear tickets tell the story. This keeps us async‑friendly, auditable, and aligned across time zones and functions.

Other Benefits

• Great health insurance, dental, and vision
• Gym and workspace stipends
• Computer and workspace enhancements
• Unlimited PTO
• Company off‑sites with the team
• Opportunity to play a critical role in building the foundations of the company and Engineering culture

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.