Backend Engineer (SF/On-site)

The RoleWe're seeking a Backend Engineer to join our core team as we build technology that transforms behavioral health care. As one of our early engineering hires, you'll have outsized impact on our technical architecture, product direction, and company culture. You'll be responsible for designing and implementing scalable backend systems that process sensitive healthcare data, working with distributed architectures that support real-time patient interactions, and contributing to AI-driven clinical tools that directly impact patient outcomes.This is a unique opportunity to shape the technical foundation of a company that's revolutionizing mental health care, with significant equity upside and the autonomy to make architectural decisions that will scale with our growth.What You'll DoArchitect and develop core backend services using Spring Boot that power our AI-driven platformDesign and implement comprehensive monitoring, alerting, and observability infrastructure using Prometheus and GrafanaConfigure and manage AWS scaling policies to ensure system reliability and cost optimizationBuild distributed systems leveraging message queues and streaming platforms (SQS, Kafka, Kinesis) for high-volume asynchronous workloadsImplement robust data reliability strategies including redundancy, failure handling, and disaster recoveryDesign and optimize LLM integration pipelines, including prompt engineering, usage monitoring, and quality assuranceEstablish security best practices using Spring Security, implement RBAC, and ensure HIPAA complianceModel and optimize complex clinical and operational workflows, translating domain requirements into well-structured, maintainable backend processesMake foundational technical decisions that will scale as we grow from startup to industry leaderCollaborate directly with founders and clinical teams to translate healthcare needs into scalable technical solutionsOwn major product features end-to-end, from architecture to deployment.Who You AreSystems Thinker: You naturally reason about distributed systems, failure modes, and data consistency. You design for what goes wrong, not just what goes right.Reliability-Focused: You believe monitoring and alerting aren't afterthoughts—they're core engineering deliverables. You sleep better when dashboards are green and alerts are actionable.Problem Solver: You are resourceful and can architect smart solutions when faced with complex, non-standard requirements or scaling challenges.Ownership Mindset: You are happy to roll up your sleeves to handle both high-level architecture decisions and the critical operational details that keep a production system running.Required Qualifications2+ years of software engineering experienceDeep expertise in Spring Boot framework and Java ecosystem for building production-grade applicationsProficiency in monitoring and observability tools, specifically Prometheus and Grafana for creating dashboards and alertsStrong experience with AWS services including provisioning and managing auto-scaling policies, EC2, ECS/EKSProven expertise in architecting scalable distributed systems using message queues and streaming platforms (SQS, Kafka, Kinesis)Experience implementing data reliability patterns including redundancy, circuit breakers, retry mechanisms, and graceful failure handlingHands-on experience with LLM technologies including prompt engineering, usage monitoring, and quality metricsStrong security engineering background with Spring Security, implementing RBAC, and healthcare compliance standardsExperience with process modeling and translating complex domain workflows into backend logicDemonstrated ability to build systems that handle asynchronous workloads at scaleExperience with event-driven architectures and microservices patternsAbility to thrive in a fast-paced startup environmentExcellent communication and collaboration abilitiesBonus PointsExperience in audio/signal processingDomain-Driven Design (DDD) experience and principlesAdvanced Confluent Kafka platform expertiseInfrastructure as Code experience with TerraformExperience with additional cloud platforms (GCP, Azure)Background in real-time systems or media processingHealthcare technology or HIPAA compliance experienceExperience with AI/ML model deployment and monitoringOpen source contributionsWhat We OfferSalary range of $150,000–$200,000, plus equity with significant upside potential as a founding team memberComprehensive health, dental, and vision insuranceDirect access to founders and influence on company directionProfessional development budget and conference attendanceModern tech stack and complete autonomy over technical decisionsOpportunity to build something meaningful that impacts mental health at scaleHow to ApplySend us your resume along with a brief note about what excites you about this role and any relevant projects you've worked on. We'd particularly love to hear about your experience with distributed systems, monitoring infrastructure, and any work you've done with LLMs or AI systems in production environments. Soulside AI