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