Founding Software Engineer, Backend

About the Role

Join a small engineering team building an AI-powered video platform. As a founding backend engineer and technical lead, you will shape the systems and engineering practices that support its core creative technology.

What You'll Do

• Design and build scalable backend systems for video generation pipelines, agentic workflows, reinforcement learning loops, and real-time data processing.

• Own distributed systems architecture and improve reliability through automated testing, performance benchmarking, and end-to-end observability.

• Partner with researchers, engineers, and designers to develop product features and APIs.

• Set technical direction, establish code standards, write high-quality code, and raise engineering practices across the team.

• Document systems, define agent skills, and communicate technical decisions clearly.

What We're Looking For

• Five to ten years of backend software engineering experience, including experience at early-stage or high-growth startups.

• Experience building scalable backend systems, including distributed systems, large-scale data processing, information retrieval, and asynchronous workflows.

• Industry experience with TypeScript and AWS, including relevant cloud infrastructure and services.

• At least 12 months of industry experience designing and building agentic systems, LLMs, or generative AI.

• A formal degree, strong computer science fundamentals, fluency in English, and experience acting as a technical lead.

Compensation & Benefits

Annual salary range: $225,000 to $275,000 USD. Visa sponsorship is not available.

Location

On-site in San Francisco, California, five days per week.