Staff Software Engineer, Backend

Gradial•Seattle, WA

6h•$180,000 - $240,000•Onsite

About The Position

Gradial is the marketing operations system of work that helps marketers and creatives move from idea to execution faster. Our platform orchestrates across martech stacks, workflows, and people to automate marketing execution, cutting execution time, so marketers focus on the work only humans can do: shaping brands, understanding customers, and creating the work that moves people. Backed by leading investors, we’re building software that adapts to the user, not the other way around. We move with urgency, operate with ownership, and solve hard problems from first principles. If you want to do ambitious work, take real responsibility, and help define the future of AI-native content operations, you’ll do your best work here. The Role Gradial is looking for a Staff Software Engineer, Backend to take on some of the largest, most complex and ambiguous technical problems across our product. You’ll own critical systems from loosely defined problem through architecture and production, building the backend foundations that enable Gradial to deliver increasingly powerful AI-driven workflows. This is a highly hands-on IC role. You’ll write production code, make consequential architectural decisions and create clarity where the path forward is not obvious. You’ll work closely with engineering, product and design to turn ambitious ideas into reliable systems while raising the technical bar across the engineering team.

Requirements

8+ years of professional software engineering experience with significant experience building and operating backend systems
Proven ability to independently lead large, technically complex projects in fast-moving or ambiguous environments
Deep technical expertise in software architecture, distributed systems, algorithms and system design
Track record of taking products or systems from 0→1 and making sound architectural decisions with incomplete information
Ability to break down vague, high-variance problems into clear technical approaches and drive them through execution
Strong product judgment and the ability to balance technical quality, speed and customer impact
Experience designing systems for scalability, reliability, performance and maintainability in production
Strong communication skills with the ability to influence technical decisions and align engineers and cross-functional partners
High ownership mindset with a willingness to work across boundaries and own both the problem and the solution

Nice To Haves

Experience building products or infrastructure involving AI/ML systems, LLMs or agentic workflows
Experience in high-growth or early-stage startups where technical scope and priorities change quickly
Proficiency with TypeScript or similar languages

Responsibilities

Lead large, complex technical projects from ambiguous problem definition through architecture, implementation and production
Architect and build backend systems that power AI-driven workflows, including real-time inference, tool orchestration and long-running processes
Drive technical direction for critical systems with a focus on scalability, reliability, performance and long-term maintainability
Turn loosely defined product and technical problems into clear plans, making pragmatic decisions and driving execution without requiring a predefined path
Build new systems from 0→1 while evolving existing architecture as our product, customers and engineering organization scale
Establish patterns and abstractions that simplify complex systems and make the broader engineering team more effective
Partner closely with product and design to shape solutions, identify technical opportunities and make thoughtful tradeoffs
Raise the engineering bar through technical leadership, architecture, code reviews and mentorship while remaining deeply involved in implementation
Own systems end to end, including testing, deployment, observability, reliability and ongoing operation in production