Staff Fullstack Engineer

Surge AI; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Surge AI is seeking a Staff Fullstack Engineer to design and build the core systems powering our platform. You’ll own frontend product decisions and backend architecture for high-impact workflows, with autonomy and a strong product focus.

You’ll collaborate with ML practitioners and engineers from top tech companies to build fast, reliable tools for AI training pipelines, data collection, labeling, and evaluation. 7+ years of experience preferred.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience building and shipping production software.
• Demonstrated experience leading projects with significant scope and ambiguity.
• Strong fullstack background building and maintaining applications using React/TypeScript and Python or Ruby on Rails.
• Product-focused mindset: you care deeply about usability, performance, and maintainability, and you ship features that solve real-world problems.
• Autonomous self-starter: you thrive in a small team environment and take ownership from idea to production.
• Excellent communication skills: you can clearly explain technical decisions and trade-offs to other senior engineers.
• Startup experience (early-stage engineer or founder experience strongly preferred).
• CS degree from a top school or equivalent STEM background

Responsibilities

• Design and build core fullstack systems that power Surge’s platform.
• Own frontend product decisions and backend architecture for high-impact workflows.
• Build scalable systems for data collection, labeling, and evaluation.
• Create fast, reliable, and intuitive tools used by the world’s leading AI labs.
• Take ownership from idea to production, iterating quickly while maintaining a high bar for quality.

Skills

React/TypeScript

Python

Ruby on Rails

Frontend architecture

Backend architecture

Technical leadership

Communication

Startup experience

Education

CS degree

Job description

About Us

Our mission is to raise AGI with the richness of human intelligence — curious, witty, imaginative, and full of unexpected brilliance.

Surge was founded by engineers and researchers who dreamed of building the next generation AI. We're building a platform that powers the most powerful models in the world in partnership with companies like Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and Meta.

At Surge, we believe the path to AGI isn't just about scaling compute—it's about embracing the unlimited ceiling of human intelligence and creativity in the data that shapes these systems. Our platform combines elite human expertise with cutting-edge tools for scalable oversight, from building rich RL environments to conducting rigorous evaluations that go beyond benchmarks. We've run a profitable business from day one without raising venture funding.

The Role

This is a senior, hands-on engineering role for builders who want full ownership.

As a Staff Fullstack Engineer at Surge, you will design and build the core systems that power our platform, owning everything from frontend product decisions to backend architecture. You’ll operate with a high degree of autonomy, make consequential technical decisions, and ship quickly.

We are a small, dynamic team operating at the center of the AI ecosystem. You’ll collaborate closely with engineering leaders and ML practitioners from top technology companies to build fast, reliable, and scalable tools that support advanced AI training techniques.

What We’re Looking for

• 7+ years of experience building and shipping production software

• Demonstrated experience leading projects with significant scope and ambiguity

• Strong fullstack background building and maintaining applications using React/TypeScript and Python or Ruby on Rails

• Product-focused mindset: you care deeply about usability, performance, and maintainability, and you ship features that solve real-world problems

• Autonomous self-starter: you thrive in a small team environment and take ownership from idea to production

• Excellent communication skills: you can clearly explain technical decisions and trade-offs to other senior engineers

• Startup experience (early-stage engineer or founder experience strongly preferred)

• CS degree from a top school or equivalent STEM background
  

What You’ll Do

• Design and build core fullstack systems that power Surge’s platform

• Own frontend product decisions and backend architecture for high-impact workflows

• Build scalable systems for data collection, labeling, and evaluation

• Create fast, reliable, and intuitive tools used by the world’s leading AI labs

• Take ownership from idea to production, iterating quickly while maintaining a high bar for quality