Staff / Principal Engineer, Backend Architecture

Recruiting From Scratch • San Francisco, CA

1d • Onsite

About The Position

Member of Technical Staff, Backend Location: San Francisco, CA Company Stage of Funding: Series C AI Marketplace ($10B Valuation) Office Type: Onsite (5 Days Per Week) Salary: $130,000–$500,000 + Equity Company Description We're representing one of the fastest-growing AI companies building the infrastructure that powers the AI economy. Their platform connects leading AI labs and enterprises with a global network of experts who generate the high-quality human intelligence required to train and evaluate frontier AI models. As the platform continues to scale, the company is investing heavily in the shared backend infrastructure that powers every product experience across its ecosystem. They're seeking a Member of Technical Staff to define the long-term architecture behind talent matching, assessments, expert workflows, and core platform services. This is a highly influential individual contributor role focused on organization-wide technical leadership, partnering directly with engineering leadership to shape the systems and engineering standards that will support the company's next stage of growth.

Requirements

• 8+ years of professional backend software engineering experience.
• 3+ years operating at the Senior, Staff, Principal, or equivalent engineering level.
• Deep expertise in distributed systems, backend architecture, service-oriented design, and scalable API development.
• Proven experience owning technical architecture across multiple engineering teams or an organization-wide platform.
• Track record of successfully leading large-scale technical migrations in production environments.
• Strong understanding of data modeling, backend infrastructure, and long-term system evolution.
• Experience mentoring senior engineers and influencing engineering organizations through technical leadership rather than formal management.
• Proficiency using modern AI-assisted development tools such as Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, or similar.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical tradeoffs clearly.

Nice To Haves

• Designing backend platforms supporting high-growth marketplace, SaaS, or AI products.
• Background at top-tier technology companies or rapidly scaling startups.
• Experience building shared platform infrastructure used across multiple engineering organizations.
• Strong expertise in distributed systems, service boundaries, reliability engineering, and large-scale backend migrations.
• Demonstrated ability to influence technical direction through architectural leadership and engineering standards.
• Passion for building systems that remain maintainable and scalable over many years.
• High ownership mindset with the ability to balance technical excellence and rapid execution.
• Interest in AI infrastructure, developer productivity, and building foundational platform technology.

Responsibilities

• Own the architecture behind the shared backend systems that power every product across the platform.
• Define the long-term technical strategy for backend infrastructure, distributed services, APIs, and core data models.
• Design highly scalable, reliable systems capable of supporting a rapidly growing global marketplace.
• Lead organization-wide architectural initiatives, technical migrations, and infrastructure modernization efforts.
• Establish engineering standards, architectural patterns, and backend best practices adopted across multiple product teams.
• Remain hands-on by prototyping critical infrastructure, writing production code, and solving complex technical challenges.
• Lead high-impact design reviews and influence major technical decisions across the engineering organization.
• Mentor senior engineers and help elevate the overall technical quality of the engineering team.
• Partner closely with engineering and product leadership on platform investments, build-versus-buy decisions, and long-term technical planning.
• Drive architectural improvements that enable product teams to move faster while maintaining reliability and scalability.

Benefits

• Generous equity package vested over four years.
• $20,000 relocation assistance for candidates relocating to the Bay Area.
• $10,000 housing bonus for employees living within 0.5 miles of the office.
• $1,500 monthly meal stipend.
• Complimentary Equinox membership.
• Comprehensive health insurance.
• Opportunity to define the backend architecture that powers every product across one of the fastest-growing AI companies in the world.
• Organization-wide technical ownership with direct influence over engineering strategy, platform investments, and long-term architectural direction.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed