Senior Backend Software Engineer

About the company

Our client is a fast-growing software company.

The role

Raydar is recruiting for this role on behalf of our client. Act as a senior technical lead for backend engineering on a small team, shaping architecture and engineering standards. The work pairs server-side engineering with applied generative AI, in close partnership with researchers, engineers and designers.

What you'll do

• Design and build backend services that form the core of a software platform.
• Create infrastructure for AI-driven workflows, media generation pipelines and live data handling.
• Take ownership of system architecture across many services, and strengthen reliability with automated tests, performance measurement and monitoring.
• Collaborate with researchers, engineers and designers to deliver new features and APIs.
• Define coding guidelines and mentor others by example to lift overall engineering quality.
• Document your work clearly and explain technical choices to colleagues working side by side in an office.

Requirements

What we're looking for

• 5 to 10 years of backend engineering experience, with solid fundamentals in algorithms, data structures and system design.
• A track record of building backend systems that scale, including work with large data volumes, search and retrieval, and background job processing.
• Hands-on professional use of TypeScript and AWS.
• At least 12 months of professional experience building applications on large language models or generative AI, including autonomous agent-style systems.
• Time spent in a startup setting, either early-stage or rapidly growing.
• A formal university degree.
• Fluent English in reading, writing and speaking.
• Ability to work in the office five days a week in San Francisco, as a local resident or able to start immediately.

Bonus points

• Previous experience as a technical lead, setting direction and code standards for a team.

Benefits

Compensation and benefits

• Base salary: USD 225,000 to 275,000 per year
• Equity
• Health, dental and vision coverage

Location and work model

• San Francisco, CA, United States
• On-site, 5 days per week
• Full-time