Staff Backend Engineer - AI Startup

We’re looking for a Staff Backend Engineer to join an AI startup building an operating system for decision-making in the insurance industry.

The team is building professional-grade AI systems that automate complex workflows and work with fragmented, high-value data. This is a hands-on engineering role with significant ownership across backend architecture, infrastructure and business-critical systems.

What you’ll work on

• Design and build scalable backend systems and infrastructure
• Own complex technical problems and business-critical engineering work end to end
• Work with high-traffic and high-complexity distributed systems
• Build and improve data models, pipelines and evaluation systems
• Work with cloud and serverless technologies
• Contribute to system design, debugging, performance and reliability
• Work closely with AI/ML systems and production workflows

Core technologies

• Python
• PostgreSQL / relational databases
• AWS
• AWS Lambda / EC2
• Distributed systems
• System design
• AI/ML
• Asynchronous workflows

What we’re looking for

• 8+ years of practical software engineering experience
• Recent Staff-level experience or equivalent architectural scope
• Strong backend engineering experience
• Strong, high-quality Python experience, or a strong background in another object-oriented language such as Java, Kotlin or Rust
• Experience working with cloud environments and serverless technologies such as AWS Lambda or EC2
• Strong experience with relational databases, ideally PostgreSQL
• Experience designing and working with high-traffic or complex distributed systems
• Strong system design, debugging and problem-solving skills
• Experience taking ownership of complex projects or business domains from end to end
• A track record of working at a strong technology company or startup
• A stable career history with meaningful periods of ownership rather than frequent short-term moves

Particularly preferred

* Shipped produc