Founding Backend Software Engineer

ABOUT THE ROLE Join an early-stage AI video company as a founding backend engineer. You will lead backend architecture and engineering practices while building systems that power generative video and agentic workflows. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Design and develop scalable backend systems for AI-powered video creation. - Build infrastructure for agentic workflows, video generation pipelines, reinforcement learning loops, and real-time data processing. - Own distributed systems architecture and improve reliability through testing, performance benchmarking, and end-to-end observability. - Partner with researchers, engineers, and designers to develop product features and APIs. - Set technical direction and engineering standards while contributing high-quality code. - Document systems, define agent skills, and communicate technical decisions clearly. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR - Five to ten years of backend software engineering experience, including work at early-stage or high-growth startups. - Industry experience building agentic systems and working with LLMs or generative AI for at least one year. - Strong experience with scalable backend and distributed systems, large-scale data processing, information retrieval, and asynchronous workflows. - Professional experience with TypeScript and AWS; familiarity with services such as S3, Lambda, RDS, SQS, and ECS is relevant. - Strong fundamentals in algorithms, data structures, and system design, applied to production backend systems. - Experience acting as a technical lead and raising engineering standards through code and technical guidance. - A formal degree and fluent English communication skills. COMPENSATION & BENEFITS Base salary: $225,000 to $275,000 annually. Visa sponsorship is not available. LOCATION On-site in San Francisco, California.