Staff Software Engineer

Who is Recruiting from Scratch:

Recruiting from Scratch is a premier talent firm that focuses on placing the best product managers, software, and hardware talent at innovative companies. Our team is 100% remote and we work with teams across the United States to help them hire.

Title of Role: Staff Software Engineer

Location: San Francisco, CA (SoMa Hybrid) or Remote (US)
Company Stage of Funding: Series A/B (~$50M raised)
Office Type: Hybrid (4 days/week in-office, flexible for Bay Area candidates, remote possible for exceptional candidates)
Salary: $200,000 - $280,000 + Competitive Equity
Visa: H1B transfers supported (no net new H1Bs)
Company Description

Our client is an AI infrastructure startup building intelligent assistants designed for busy professionals-helping automate workflows across email, meetings, calendar management, and task coordination.

The company recently launched a new product that has already surpassed $2M ARR within weeks, demonstrating exceptional early traction and strong product-market fit.

Backed by top-tier investors with approximately $50M in funding, the company has refined its product direction and now operates as a lean, highly focused engineering organization shipping rapidly.

With a small, highly autonomous team of around 20 people, this is an opportunity to join at a critical growth stage and help define the technical architecture powering the next generation of AI-native productivity software.
What You Will Do

Own and deliver major features from prototype through production deployment
Drive architecture decisions across backend systems and platform reliability
Build customer-facing LLM-powered systems at production scale
Design and improve infrastructure for testing and reliability of non-deterministic AI systems
Work directly with customers to understand needs and shape product direction
Build scalable backend systems using Node.js and TypeScript
Contribute to frontend architecture where needed using React and GraphQL
Improve observability, system reliability, and operational tooling
Diagnose production issues and implement scalable long-term solutions
Collaborate closely with leadership on product and technical strategy
Ideal Candidate Background

6+ years of full-stack engineering experience with backend depth
Experience shipping customer-facing production systems end-to-end
Strong startup experience in fast-paced, high-ownership environments
Strong expertise in backend system design and distributed systems
Experience working directly with product and customers
Comfortable operating independently with minimal oversight
Preferred

Experience building LLM-powered production systems
Experience with agent frameworks and multiple LLM providers
Strong Node.js and TypeScript expertise
Experience with React and GraphQL
Experience with MongoDB or document-oriented databases
Experience building testing/quality systems for AI products
Top technical education background preferred
Compensation and Benefits

Base salary: $200,000 - $280,000
Equity: Competitive
Visa: H1B transfers supported (no new H1B sponsorship)
Hybrid SF office (4 days/week)
Remote flexibility for exceptional candidates
Relocation assistance up to $20,000
Direct collaboration with executive leadership
High ownership and rapid career growth
Why Join

This is a rare opportunity to join a high-growth AI company at a pivotal product inflection point.

The product has already achieved strong early traction, and the engineering team is small enough that your technical decisions will directly shape the future of the platform.

If you're excited about building production-grade AI systems, owning major architectural decisions, and working in an environment optimized for speed and autonomy, this role offers exceptional impact.