Senior Backend Engineer

Senior Backend EngineerAustin, Texas, United StatesLocation: Austin (Domain), TX (In-office 4x per week)Company: KizenOTE - $207,000-$253,000KAbout UsKizen is a leading AI platform for the future of work, redefining how people and AI seamlessly move and improve as one. Founded on the principle that technology should make work more meaningful, Kizen creates AI systems (AKA assistants) that learn, adapt, and improve over time, just like the people who use them.Today, Kizen powers millions of mission-critical experiences for leading organizations in highly regulated industries like insurance, healthcare, and financial services. Some of the ways we support these teams include: helping insurance agents manage contracting and commissions, enabling healthcare providers to deliver proactive patient care, and empowering financial institutions to classify documents and extract data automatically. We're solving operational problems and helping the world's most complex organizations give their teams the tools they need to do more, grow faster and live better.And this is just the beginning! Kizen is where enterprises get AI that works on day one and is flexible enough to shape it to their own organizations. Our AI-first platform is easy to adopt, scale, and trust making it a destination for developers to build new applications and business teams to customize AI assistants, all in one place.Join us in transforming how industries work, one person, one workflow, one AI assistant at a time!About the RoleWant to help create the future of work? We're putting AI and intelligent automation to real use in the hands of real people.We are looking for a hands-on Senior Engineer with a history of focusing on user outcomes and rapidly delivering reliable, scalable systems as we bring our next-gen platform to the world.This is an opportunity of a lifetime for someone who wants to be at the heart of the AI movement to better humanity. As a Senior Backend Engineer, you'll be working directly with our Director of Engineering to build new user-facing features and enhancements, and to scale the core Kizen platform with our users' growing needs.Our core values are the heart of Kizen's DNA. They are baked into our culture, drive our decisions, and manifest in how we treat our customers, partners, and each other. We are:Customer Obsessed. We are fanatical about making our customers wildly successful. We adopt our customers' missions as our own, and do not rest until they have made their mark on the world and achieved every last goal.Fiercely Kind. Kindness is a way of life, so we strive to be a force for good in all we do. We value all people, treating others with unwavering respect, compassion, and understanding. In the spirit of stewardship, we aim to leave things better than they were.Relentlessly Excellent. We build amazing teams and unleash their talents. We approach our work with a sense of urgency, always giving our best effort, then trying to do a little better. We operate with complete transparency, creating trust and resolving issues faster.Amazingly Fun. Doing the job of your dreams should be outrageously fun. We laugh a lot, and celebrate early and often. We embrace an attitude of optimism and genuinely enjoy collaborating.Key ResponsibilitiesAbility to iteratively improve a solution that uses nondeterministic components by using experimental methodsWork with Engineering leaders to ensure we're building reliable, maintainable softwarePartner with the product team to design feasible features, create consumable tickets, and assess implementationWork with the Frontend Engineering Team Lead(s) to ensure the user-facing experience is polished and uses backend features as intendedCraft flexible, reliable, and scalable codeWrite tests and evals to ensure stability as the codebase evolves over timeMeet technical issues head on: troubleshooting and quickly creating resolution plans to rapidly address acute customer impact, while also planning for long-term successRequirementsBachelor's degree or greater required in Computer Science (preferred), Information Technology, or related field (Physics, mathematics, engineering)Ability to facilitate a task's entire lifecycle, going from product requirements to deployment5 - 7+ years of professional development experience (Python preferred)Experience shipping LLM-enabled features in productionExceptional collaboration, organizational, time management, and communication skillsAbility to navigate ambiguity and adapt to a quickly changing environmentDriven and self-motivated with a track record of finding and solving difficult problemsAn eye for opportunity / good at creative optimization problemsPreferred QualificationsExperience with DjangoExperience with LangGraph, LiteLLM, or similarWorking knowledge of at least one evaluation systemUnderstanding of Agentic best practicesExperience implementing MCP Servers/ClientsExperience with Postgres, Redis, S3, MemcacheExperience deploying applications with KubernetesExperience implementing RAGYou've made or contributed to open-source projects and have your fair share of side projectsWhy KizenWe're a fast-growing company that values innovation, growth, and continuous improvement. By joining Kizen, you'll play a pivotal role in shaping the future of the company while enjoying a supportive, dynamic, and collaborative workplace. You'll have opportunities for professional development, impact, and career advancement.What We OfferCareer Growth OpportunitiesEngaging Work CultureTop-Tier CompensationEquity PackageHealthcare CoverageProfessional Development StipendsPTOKizen is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive culture that celebrates authenticity to win as one. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, protected veteran status, citizenship or immigration status, or any other legally protected characteristics. At Kizen, we fully comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). We are dedicated to embracing challenges and creating an accessible, inclusive workplace for all individuals.The base salary range for this position is $180,000k - $220,000k. However, base pay offered may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. In addition to base salary, we also offer generous equity and benefits packages.If you're excited about creating impactful experiences and contributing to a fast-paced, people-focused team, we'd love to meet you!