Senior / Staff Backend Engineer - AI Agents Platform

Senior / Staff Backend Engineer – AI Agents PlatformLocation - Redwood City, CA (Hybrid – 3 Days per Week)Compensation - $200,000 – $250,000 Base + Bonus + Competitive Equity (OTE: $220,000 – $300,000+)Visa - Visa Sponsorship Available on a Case-by-Case BasisCompany Stage - High-Growth AI CompanyIndustry - AI Agents, Enterprise AI, Vertical SaaS, Backend Infrastructure, Distributed SystemsAbout the CompanyThe company is building autonomous AI agents that function like experienced operators, enabling businesses to automate complex operational workflows with human-level reasoning and decision-making.Its AI platform combines large language models, distributed backend systems, production-grade infrastructure, and multi-step autonomous agent workflows to execute sophisticated business processes at enterprise scale. Already deployed across millions of customer endpoints, the platform is rapidly becoming one of the fastest-growing AI products in its market.Backed by leading investors and experiencing exceptional commercial traction, the engineering organization is expanding rapidly to build the next generation of AI-native backend infrastructure powering reliable, production-scale autonomous agents.As a Senior / Staff Backend Engineer, you'll architect the core platform powering AI agents, distributed backend services, APIs, and production infrastructure while working alongside a high-performing engineering team solving challenging systems problems at scale.This is a rare opportunity to join a rapidly growing AI company where you'll own foundational platform architecture, influence engineering direction, and build production AI systems deployed across real enterprise customers.What You'll DoArchitect and build the backend platform powering autonomous AI agentsDesign scalable distributed systems supporting production AI workloadsBuild reliable APIs, backend services, and platform infrastructure from the ground upDesign and implement multi-step autonomous AI agent systemsImprove system reliability, scalability, observability, latency, and production performanceDesign clean service contracts, APIs, and platform abstractions across internal and external systemsBuild production infrastructure supporting AI reasoning, orchestration, and execution workflowsOwn architecture decisions across backend services, infrastructure, and platform engineeringPartner closely with engineering leadership to shape long-term platform architectureOwn high-impact engineering initiatives from technical design through production deploymentHelp establish engineering standards, backend best practices, and platform qualityOperate with high autonomy while solving complex distributed systems challengesIdeal Candidate BackgroundExperience Requirements6+ years of experience in backend software engineeringExperience building and scaling production AI/ML platforms or productsExperience designing and operating distributed backend systems at meaningful production scaleExperience working in fast-paced, high-growth startup environmentsExperience leading technical architecture for high-impact engineering initiativesExperience owning backend systems from design through production operationsExperience at vertical SaaS or product-focused software companies preferredStaff Engineer or Senior Engineer ownership experience strongly preferredDemonstrated ability to operate independently in ambiguous, high-growth environmentsTechnical RequirementsStrong backend engineering fundamentalsDeep expertise in distributed systems architectureExperience with concurrency, asynchronous processing, queues, workers, and cachingStrong production systems and backend platform engineering experienceExperience designing scalable APIs and service contractsHands-on experience building AI/ML platforms, LLM applications, or autonomous AI agentsExperience building multi-step agent workflows or orchestration systemsStrong system design and backend architecture fundamentalsExperience with observability, debugging, reliability, and production operationsComfortable leveraging modern AI development tools to improve engineering productivityEducationBachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related technical field preferredStrong technical foundation with demonstrated engineering excellenceSoft SkillsHigh ownership mentalityExcellent communication and technical leadership skillsComfortable operating in ambiguityStrong systems thinking and architectural problem-solvingIndependent execution with minimal managementBias toward action and shippingStrong engineering craftsmanshipStartup mentalityAbility to raise engineering quality across the teamPreferred BackgroundsAI infrastructure startupsAI agent platform companiesVertical SaaS companiesBackend platform engineering organizationsEnterprise AI startupsDistributed systems organizationsWorkflow automation platformsEarly-stage venture-backed startupsFounding engineering teamsEngineers building production AI platformsCompensation & BenefitsBase Salary: $200,000 – $250,000Performance BonusCompetitive Equity PackageSignificant ownership over AI platform architectureDirect collaboration with engineering leadershipOpportunity to build large-scale autonomous AI systemsHigh-impact engineering roleExposure to cutting-edge AI agent technologiesRapid career growth opportunitiesHybrid collaboration with a high-performing engineering teamWhy JoinThis is an opportunity to build the backend platform powering one of the fastest-growing autonomous AI products in production.You'll architect distributed backend infrastructure, build production AI agent systems, and solve challenging large-scale engineering problems while working alongside an experienced team building enterprise-grade AI technology.As one of the senior platform engineers, you'll have outsized influence over backend architecture, engineering culture, and technical direction while building AI-native infrastructure deployed across millions of real-world users. Recruiting from Scratch