Backend Software Engineer

We are looking for a Backend Software Engineer with 2+ years of experience 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, and this role works across multiple products on a platform that processes terabytes of speech data every day. What You'll Be Doing Building scalable backend systems and data processing pipelines that connect and power all three products Designing infrastructure that helps the platform scale efficiently as customer demand grows rapidly Working across the speaker platform, lab and researcher tools, and internal tooling Collaborating closely with researchers to iterate on data collection infrastructure Architecting and maintaining APIs and services that thousands of users interact with daily What We're Looking For 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 Compensation And Logistics $175,000–$225,000 base depending on experience, plus competitive early-stage equity 100% health coverage on most plans, unlimited PTO, daily meals, and Barry's classes Five days a week in-office in San Francisco, CA Open to visa transfers, including OPT and H1B Four-step interview process: recruiter screen, hiring manager screen, technical/design interview, on-site