← All Positions

Member of Technical Staff, Backend Engineer

Early-stage AI technology startup Palo Alto, CA Direct Hire Engineering $150,000 - $200,000

Job Summary

Join a small, high-talent founding team to architect and build core backend systems for an AI-powered desktop assistant. You will own data infrastructure and AI runtime capabilities, driving scalability, low-latency performance, and innovative features for a category-defining consumer product. This role demands exceptional backend engineering with a spike in AI/agentic systems or large-scale data infrastructure.

Essential Functions

  • Architect and build core backend systems for an AI-powered desktop assistant, focusing on scalability and low-latency performance
  • Own and evolve data infrastructure, tackling challenges in data storage, compression, and high-speed querying at scale
  • Develop and optimize AI runtime and agent orchestration, building capabilities for context management, tool use, and retrieval
  • Design and implement robust, scalable cloud infrastructure using GCP and Terraform to support a growing user base
  • Ship consumer-facing features and platform capabilities, iterating quickly based on user feedback with the founding team

Required Qualifications

  • Backend engineering expertise in Python with experience in cloud infrastructure like GCP
  • Experience in data storage, compression, and pipeline optimization
  • Background in AI engineering and distributed systems
  • 0-5 years of experience in backend engineering, focusing on either AI systems or large-scale infrastructure
  • Experience with large-scale cloud infrastructure such as GCP and Terraform
  • High-intensity, proactive mindset with extreme ownership
  • Ability to work full-time in-office in the SF Bay Area

Preferred Qualifications

  • Experience at VC-backed AI startups, FAANG/large tech, or top-tier quant trading firms
  • Background in competitive programming or graduation from top academic institutions
  • Built projects from scratch using LLMs, RAG, or embeddings
  • Provides a portfolio like GitHub demonstrating technical depth
  • Strong technical skills from competitive environments

Technical Skills

  • Python
  • GCP
  • Terraform
  • Data storage and compression
  • Pipeline optimization
  • AI engineering
  • Distributed systems
  • Agentic systems
  • LLMs
  • RAG

Education & Certifications

Undergraduate degree in Computer Science. Background in competitive programming such as IOI or ICPC medals preferred. Graduation from a top-tier university preferred.

Compensation & Benefits

Competitive salary range of $150,000 - $200,000 based on experience, plus equity in an early-stage startup.

Apply for This Position

📄 Drag and drop or browse PDF, DOC, or DOCX (10 MB max)