Senior/Staff Backend Engineer

Senior/Staff Backend Engineer (Platform & AI Systems)

Location: San Francisco, CA / New York, NY (Hybrid – 3–4 days/week onsite) Company Stage of Funding: Early Growth Stage (~$2M raised, ~$10M ARR, high-growth trajectory) Office Type: Hybrid (SF or NYC) Salary: $200,000 – $250,000 + Equity (0.25% – 1%) Visa: Visa sponsorship available (H1B transfers, TN; O-1 considered case-by-case)

Company Description

Our client is a fast-growing AI-enabled platform modernizing one of the most operationally complex and high-stakes workflows in global talent mobility: immigration and visa processing for high-skilled workers.

The company builds infrastructure that powers end-to-end immigration workflows for ambitious companies hiring global talent. Their platform is deeply embedded into customer operations and replaces fragmented legal, operational, and data-heavy workflows with a unified, AI-assisted system.

With strong early traction (~$10M ARR on ~$2M raised), the company is scaling rapidly and expanding its engineering team to support increasing product complexity, enterprise integrations, and AI-driven automation across legal workflows.

Backed by strong founder-market fit and deep domain expertise, the company operates at the intersection of legal infrastructure, AI agents, and enterprise workflow automation.

This is a high-ownership engineering environment where systems correctness, reliability, and speed directly impact real-world legal outcomes.

What You Will Do

• Own the design and evolution of core backend systems powering immigration workflow automation
• Build and scale Python-based backend services, APIs, and platform infrastructure
• Architect and implement agentic workflows that automate multi-step legal processes
• Redesign and scale GraphQL APIs used by customers and internal teams
• Improve backend system reliability, security, and data integrity
• Design robust data models for complex legal and operational workflows
• Build integrations with external systems (Slack, Linear, HubSpot, Front, etc.)
• Contribute to migration efforts (including infrastructure modernization to AWS)
• Develop LLM-powered features for document generation and workflow automation
• Improve system performance, scalability, and maintainability under rapid growth
• Work directly with non-technical stakeholders (legal ops, customers, founders)
• Own technical decisions end-to-end in a high-agency, low-process environment
• Help define engineering culture and platform architecture as an early senior hire

Ideal Candidate Background

• 5+ years of backend engineering experience (Senior to Staff level readiness)
• Strong production experience with Python in scalable systems
• Proven experience owning backend systems end-to-end in startups or fast-growth environments
• Strong system design fundamentals (APIs, distributed systems, data modeling)
• Experience working in Series A–C startups or high-ownership engineering teams
• Comfortable operating without heavy PM structure or detailed specs
• Strong product sense and ability to work directly with users/customers
• Experience in high-complexity, workflow-heavy domains (bonus: legal, fintech, infra, or ops platforms)

Preferred / Strong Signals

• Experience building or scaling GraphQL APIs in production
• Exposure to LLM applications, agentic workflows, or AI automation systems
• Experience with event-driven architectures or workflow orchestration systems
• Familiarity with PostgreSQL, serverless infrastructure, and cloud platforms (AWS preferred)
• Experience integrating third-party APIs in production systems
• Background in infrastructure-heavy startups or automation platforms
• Experience at companies like Stripe, Brex, Ramp, Palantir, Linear, or similar
• Experience in workflow automation / agent platforms (e.g., Inngest, n8n, Trigger.dev, Windmill ecosystem)
• Strong GitHub or evidence of shipped systems

Strong Signals

• Built and owned backend systems used in production at scale
• Experience designing data models for complex workflows or multi-entity systems
• History of making architectural decisions under ambiguity
• Proven ability to operate in fast-moving, high-ownership environments
• Hands-on experience shipping AI-enabled or automation-heavy products
• Strong communication with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Ability to move fast without sacrificing correctness or security

Compensation and Benefits

• Base salary: $200,000 – $250,000
• Equity: 0.25% – 1% (early-stage upside)
• Visa sponsorship available (H1B transfer, TN; selective O-1 support)
• Hybrid flexibility (SF / NYC)
• High-impact ownership role in early engineering team
• Direct exposure to founders and real customer workflows
• Opportunity to shape core architecture of a fast-scaling AI platform

Why Join

This is a rare opportunity to build foundational infrastructure at the center of a high-growth AI + legal-tech platform replacing one of the most complex operational systems in the global talent ecosystem.

You will own critical backend architecture that directly impacts real legal outcomes for global talent and enterprise customers.

If you're excited by high-ownership backend systems, AI-driven workflow automation, and building production infrastructure that must be both fast and correct, this role offers exceptional technical scope and career upside.