Founding Backend Engineer – AI & Data

This position is posted by Jobgether on behalf of a partner company. We are currently looking for a Founding Backend Engineer – AI & Data in United States.

This is a high-impact founding engineering role at an early-stage, fast-scaling AI company building advanced media intelligence tools for communications and public affairs teams. You will join a small but highly experienced engineering group and play a critical role in shaping the backend architecture, data systems, and AI-powered capabilities of the platform. The environment is fast-moving and deeply product-driven, where engineers ship directly to customers and see immediate real-world impact. You will work across backend systems, data infrastructure, and applied AI workflows, helping transform complex multi-modal data into actionable insights. This is a hands-on, high-ownership role where technical decisions directly influence product direction and scalability. You will collaborate closely with users, product teams, and founders in a culture that values speed, pragmatism, and strong engineering judgment.

You will take ownership of core backend systems and data infrastructure, building scalable, reliable, and AI-powered services that support real-time media intelligence products used by hundreds of customers. You will contribute across the full lifecycle of development, from system design to deployment and iteration based on user feedback.

• Architect and build core backend systems using Python, Node.js, and PostgreSQL, owning features from design through production
• Design and maintain scalable data pipelines for ingesting, normalizing, deduplicating, and indexing large multi-modal datasets (text, audio, video)
• Build and productionize AI/ML workflows, including LLMs, embeddings, RAG pipelines, and agentic systems with a focus on reliability and cost efficiency
• Develop high-performance APIs and backend services that power end-to-end product functionality
• Design systems that scale effectively while balancing speed of execution with long-term architectural soundness
• Collaborate directly with customers and internal teams to iterate quickly and refine product functionality based on real-world use cases
• Help define engineering standards, system design principles, and development practices as a founding member of the team
• Contribute to shaping a strong engineering culture centered on ownership, speed, and high-quality execution

Requirements:

You bring strong backend engineering experience with a track record of building and scaling production systems, ideally in fast-paced startup environments. You are comfortable working across data systems and applied AI, and you thrive in ambiguous, high-ownership roles where execution speed matters.

• 2–10+ years of experience building and scaling production backend systems
• Strong proficiency in backend development, including services, APIs, data modeling, and distributed systems
• Experience with Python, Node.js, PostgreSQL, and cloud infrastructure environments
• Hands-on experience with AWS or GCP, containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), and CI/CD pipelines
• Experience building or working with data pipelines, ETL systems, or large-scale data processing workflows
• Familiarity with AI/ML systems such as LLMs, embeddings, RAG pipelines, or inference workflows in production
• Strong ownership mindset with the ability to make decisions under ambiguity and drive work to completion
• Excellent communication skills and willingness to collaborate directly with users and stakeholders
• Startup or early-stage company experience is highly valued
• Preferred: experience with multimodal systems, vector databases, semantic search, or LLM fine-tuning workflows

Benefits:

• Competitive compensation package with a base salary range of $150,000–$220,000
• Meaningful early-stage equity with strong upside potential
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance coverage
• 401(k) retirement plan
• Unlimited paid time off and flexible work approach
• High-growth startup environment with direct product impact
• Clear path toward engineering leadership as the company scales
• Opportunity to work on cutting-edge AI, data, and multimodal systems