Staff Software Engineer (Backend)

Alaffia Health•New York, NY

11h

About The Position

Alaffia is a healthtech startup focused on reducing waste and administrative costs in U.S. health plans through AI-augmented claims operations. We are seeking a Staff Backend Engineer to tackle complex technical challenges, define architectural direction, and enhance engineering productivity. This role involves scaling GenAI applications, backend architecture, system design, and cloud infrastructure. The primary programming languages for this role are Python or TypeScript, but strong backend fundamentals and the ability to learn new languages are prioritized over specific language experience. The engineer will translate strategic goals into technical roadmaps, lead execution, and champion AI-augmented development practices.

Requirements

10+ years of software engineering experience.
Track record of leading complex, high-impact backend projects at scale.
Experience with large-scale, production-level API development and backend data processing.
Hands-on experience with relational databases and data model design.
Strong system design and cloud infrastructure experience (AWS preferred).
Experience with CI/CD, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and observability practices (logging, user activity metrics, integration with Datadog or similar tooling).
Demonstrated success adopting AI coding assistants to improve team productivity.
Excellent communication skills.
Experience mentoring senior engineers.

Nice To Haves

Building SaaS apps in the healthcare sector.
Experience shipping user-facing AI products or AI/ML model deployment.
Building SDKs or libraries.
Experience with vector databases.
Experience with data processing orchestrators, such as Airflow or Dagster.
Experience with message queue systems, such as AWS SQS, Kinesis, or Kafka.
GraphQL and PostgreSQL experience.
Open source contributions or technical publications.

Responsibilities

Architect and own delivery of complex, high-impact backend systems spanning multiple teams.
Set technical direction and coding/design standards for backend development across the organization.
Design, develop, and deploy data-intensive applications in a production environment.
Drive AI coding tool adoption (Claude Code); establish best practices and measure productivity gains.
Mentor senior engineers and influence technical decisions without formal authority.
Partner cross-functionally with fullstack, data, DevOps, and AI engineers, as well as product and business teams, to craft a feature-rich, GenAI-powered claim review platform.
Own testing strategy, system health, observability, and build-vs-buy decisions for critical infrastructure.