AI Agent Backend Engineer

Ochsner Health•New Orleans, LA

22h•Hybrid

About The Position

The Back-End Engineer designs, develops, and maintains the server side of conversational AI and automation applications. The role builds APIs and services used by front-end engineers, conversational interfaces, and integrated systems such as scheduling platforms and the electronic health record (EHR). It owns server-side data structures, service and system architecture, security implementation, and back-end performance and stability. This is a hybrid position with onsite presence expected approximately once per month. Additional onsite travel may be required based on business needs. The role operates in a healthcare setting and must follow applicable laws, accreditation standards, regulatory requirements, and the employer’s compliance and privacy standards.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field; equivalent practical experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
At least 5 years of professional back-end/server-side software development experience.
Experience building and consuming RESTful APIs with Python/FastAPI and async frameworks.
Ability to translate business and product requirements into technical solutions.
Ability to independently manage system reliability, uptime, and production stability.
Ability to anticipate and mitigate security and data privacy risks.
Ability to adapt to evolving AI/LLM-enabled architectures.
Ability to balance speed, scalability, and compliance in development decisions.
Ability to design scalable, high-performance backend systems.
Ability to collaborate with cross-functional technical and product teams.

Nice To Haves

AWS experience.
Experience with modern deployment practices, including containers and CI/CD.
Hands-on experience with agentic or LLM-integrated services.
Experience with relational and/or NoSQL databases.
Experience in a healthcare or other regulated, HIPAA-relevant environment.
AWS Certified Developer, Microsoft Azure Developer Associate, or Google Cloud Professional Cloud Developer certification.

Responsibilities

Design, build, and maintain server-side services, APIs, and system architecture for AI-enabled applications.
Develop and document REST APIs and integration endpoints for front-end engineers, conversational flows, and connected enterprise systems.
Design and manage data storage solutions and server-side data structures, and produce reusable, well-tested code libraries.
Implement authentication, authorization, and security controls appropriate to a HIPAA-regulated environment, including secure handling of protected health information (PHI) and personally identifiable information (PII).
Inspect and optimize services for speed, scalability, latency, and stability, and troubleshoot defects and performance bottlenecks.
Collaborate with product managers, quality assurance, integration engineers, and front-end and design teams to translate requirements into technical solutions.
Follow change-management and backup practices before making significant changes to production services.
Perform other duties as assigned and comply with all policies and standards.
Remain knowledgeable about applicable laws, accreditation standards, and regulatory requirements, and ensure compliance.
Immediately report known or suspected unethical or questionable conduct and patient or employee safety, privacy, or other compliance-related concerns.