Lead Backend Engineer - AI Services in United
Job Description
FLSA Status: Full Time, Exempt
Reports to: VP of Engineering
Location: 100% Remote
About Pulselight
Pulselight is transforming how state and federal health and human services agencies use data to
improve program integrity, strengthen oversight, and improve health outcomes. Our configurable SaaS analytics and workflow solutions empower agency leaders with actionable insights that improve the lives of the individuals they serve. Our mission is to deliver innovative technology that helps these agencies make faster, smarter, and more informed decisions. We are a privately held company that values curiosity, serving customers, collaboration, and innovation.
Role Overview
As a Lead Backend Engineer for AI Services, you will be responsible for working on Pulselight’s
backend platform for AI capabilities across the company’s SaaS products. You will lead engineering efforts required for AI capabilities. Success requires the ability to navigate ambiguity, independently drive complex initiatives, evaluate technical tradeoffs, and deliver scalable, reliable, and maintainable solutions. The ideal candidate is an experienced software engineer who enjoys solving complex technical challenges, building foundational platform capabilities, and transforming proof of concept ideas into production ready customer solutions that support long term platform growth.
Key Responsibilities
• Develop backend services within our SaaS platform and improve scalability, reliability, and
maintainability.
• Deliver on complex AI-centered platform initiatives from problem identification through design,
execution, and operationalization, breaking down ambiguous business and technical challenges
into actionable work and driving solutions to completion.
• Partner with Data Science for scalable production services.
• Design and implement reusable services, integrations, and supporting infrastructure for AI-
capabilities including model serving, LLM integration, orchestration, and retrieval services.
• Design systems that enable experimentation while maintaining reliability and support production capabilities.
• Partner with Data Science to prototype new AI capabilities and evaluate new AI technologies,
frameworks, and deployment patterns.
• Shape platform architectural decisions and engineering standards, including reusable patterns
and components that enable ongoing development.
Required Skills & Qualifications
• Must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. without employer sponsorship,
• Must be able to work collaboratively, efficiently, and effectively with a geographically distributed team.
• 15+ years of experience designing and implementing production SaaS applications, including
modernizing and extending existing production software platforms while introducing new
capabilities.
• Strong backend engineering skills, including experience with server-side Java and a strong
understanding of the .
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing scalable architectures for AI-enabled
applications, including model deployment, APIs, data flows, integration patterns, and production
operations.
• Demonstrated experience integrating machine learning and generative AI capabilities into
commercial products and customer-facing applications.
• Experience working across research/prototype and production environments, and making
architectural tradeoffs between speed of experimentation, scalability, reliability, security, and
maintainability.
• Working knowledge of: Python, FastAPI, MLflow, LangChain or similar orchestration frameworks, vector databases, Retrieval-Augmented (RAG), LLM APIs, model serving, feature stores, ML pipelines, prompt engineering, and agentic workflows.
• Experience with basic SQL and a basic understanding of the , plus demonstrated ability to design, develop, and implement data centric platform technologies.
• Experience implementing, enhancing, or maintaining business intelligence, analytics or decision support platforms.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals including testing, CI/CD, monitoring, security, and
source control.
• Experience deploying critical production systems to a Linux environment.
• Experience working or integrating with systems in deployed on cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
• Demonstrated technical judgment when evaluating build vs. buy decisions, emerging
technologies, and architectural tradeoffs.
• Demonstrated ability to design, develop, and implement data centric platform technologies.
• High level of debugging and problem-solving skills, with an emphasis on solving all parts of the
problem from start to finish.
• Experience working with Data Science teams to design and implement proof-of-concept
infrastructure and pipelines to support experimentation lifecycle .
• Ability to work independently within a small team on multiple complex initiatives in a fast-paced environment with a desire to work on evolutionary projects while integrating into an existing codebase.
• Excellent organizational, documentation, and communication skills, with demonstrated ability to clearly articulate business and technical challenges, evaluate solution options, communicate
tradeoffs, and offer recommendations to stakeholders.
Why Join Pulselight?
At Pulselight you can influence customer success, product evolution, and company growth while
working alongside experienced leaders in a collaborative, innovative culture. Pulselight offers
competitive compensation and a comprehensive benefits package which includes medical, dental, vision, company paid life and insurance, a 401(k) plan with company match, a vacation travel stipend, and a generous PTO plan.
This job description reflects management’s assignment of essential functions; it does not prescribe or restrict the tasks that may be assigned. Pulselight is an Equal Employment
Opportunity/ Affirmative Action Employer.
