Remote Staff Backend Software Engineer
Remote (US) | $200K–$280K Base + Equity The Opportunity An early-stage, venture-backed AI company is building a platform that transforms how physical environments are designed and managed. Its technology combines computer vision, spatial intelligence, and agentic AI to turn real-world spaces into interactive digital environments. The company has approximately 20 employees and is already working with customers ranging from smaller businesses to Fortune 50 enterprises. We're looking for a Staff Backend Software Engineer to take ownership of the platform's backend architecture. This is a highly autonomous, hands-on role working directly with engineering leadership, the CEO, and a small team of talented engineers. You'll have the opportunity to architect and build foundational systems rather than simply maintain or extend an existing architecture.
What You'll Do
Own backend architecture, technical direction, and implementation across the platform. Design scalable APIs, database schemas, and data models supporting complex applications. Architect distributed systems with asynchronous workflows, message queues, event-driven processes, and data pipelines. Build infrastructure supporting real-time collaboration, document versioning, and multi-tenant SaaS applications. Integrate AI and computer vision capabilities into reliable, production-grade backend services. Provision and manage cloud infrastructure using infrastructure-as-code tools. Collaborate directly with product, frontend, and AI engineers to translate business needs into scalable technical solutions. Establish engineering standards and help shape the technical foundation as the company grows.
What We're Looking For
Approximately 6–14 years of professional backend engineering experience, with flexibility for exceptional candidates outside that range. Demonstrated experience personally architecting and building complex systems or products from 0 to 1. Strong experience designing APIs, database schemas, and backend data models. Hands-on experience with distributed systems, asynchronous processing, messaging, queues, or workflow orchestration. Experience at an early-stage startup or high-growth venture-backed technology company. Experience with cloud infrastructure and infrastructure as code. Ability to operate independently, make significant technical decisions, and remain deeply hands-on. Strong communication skills and experience working directly with technical and business stakeholders. Preferred Experience Real-time collaborative applications or multi-tenant SaaS platforms. Complex backend platforms involving data pipelines, workflow engines, or event-driven architectures. Prior founding engineer, technical lead, or staff-level architectural ownership. Experience building backend infrastructure for AI-enabled products. Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or a related discipline. Technology Environment TypeScript, Python, Go, Kafka, PostgreSQL, Temporal, AWS, and Pulumi. Experience with comparable technologies is welcome; expertise in every tool is not required. Compensation & Location Base salary: $200,000–$280,000 Equity: Competitive equity package Location: Fully remote within the United States Working hours: Meaningful overlap with US Eastern Time Why Join? This is an opportunity to take ownership of a company's core backend architecture at an early stage while working on genuinely challenging technical problems spanning distributed systems, real-time collaboration, multi-tenancy, computer vision, and agentic AI. You'll have significant technical autonomy, direct access to company leadership, and an opportunity to shape how a production platform evolves as the business scales.