Backend Software Engineer

About the role

We are looking for a Backend Software Engineer to build the pipelines, systems, and infrastructure that power how leading AI labs process and make sense of audio data. You'll join a tight-knit engineering team at one of the fastest-growing AI startups — founded in 2024 by former Scale AI engineers and operators, backed by NVIDIA, Meritech, Amplify Partners, First Round Capital, and Y Combinator, and already serving most FAANG companies and frontier AI labs as customers. The team is ~50-66 people in San Francisco, working across multiple products on a platform that processes terabytes of speech data every day.

Responsibilities

• Build scalable backend systems and data processing pipelines that connect and power all three products
• Design infrastructure that helps the platform scale efficiently as customer demand grows rapidly
• Work across the speaker platform, lab and researcher tools, and internal tooling
• Collaborate closely with researchers to iterate on data collection infrastructure
• Architect and maintain APIs and services that thousands of users interact with daily

Requirements

• 2-6 years of backend engineering experience as a hands-on individual contributor
• Proficiency in Python and TypeScript — Python is central to the technical interview
• Experience at high-growth, VC-backed startups (not exclusively large or legacy companies)
• A strong CS degree from a top ~50 US program, or equivalent (e.g., University of Waterloo)
• Demonstrated ownership of zero-to-one projects with measurable business impact
• Experience building scalable systems and data processing pipelines in production
• Familiarity with Node.js, PostgreSQL, or AWS; audio, ML, or data-infrastructure domain experience is a plus

Tech stack

Python, TypeScript, Node.js, tRPC, PostgreSQL, AWS, Trigger.dev, WebRTC, FFmpeg

Pay

$175,000–$225,000 base depending on experience, plus competitive early-stage equity.

Benefits

• 100% health coverage on most plans
• Unlimited PTO
• Daily meals
• Barry's classes

Schedule

Five days a week in-office in San Francisco, CA. Open to visa transfers, including OPT and H1B.