Staff Backend Software Engineer
Summary
Own backend architecture end to end at an early-stage, stealth, venture-backed startup building the commerce layer for designing physical spaces, using agentic AI and computer vision. Day to day: design APIs and schemas, build distributed async workflows and queues, real-time collaboration and multi-tenant systems, and set up infrastructure-as-code on AWS.
Hiring on behalf of our client
Title: Staff Backend Software Engineer
Time: Full-time
Location: Remote, United States (East Coast overlap required)
Compensation: $200,000 - $280,000 base salary + competitive equity
The Company
Our client is an early-stage, venture-backed startup operating in stealth, building the commerce layer for how physical spaces are designed and transformed. Utilizing agentic AI and computer vision, its platform measures rooms, generates spatial layouts, and specifies materials in real time. Backed by top-tier venture investors, the company already partners with clients ranging from boutique design studios to Fortune 50 enterprises.
Role Overview
As a Staff Backend Software Engineer, you will step in as the primary technical owner of the backend architecture. This is a fully hands-on individual-contributor position leading system design, database modeling, and infrastructure decisions from zero to one. Rather than maintaining an existing backend service or delivering features inside a pre-built framework, you will design the foundation connecting agentic AI and computer vision pipelines to distributed business systems, real-time collaboration engines, and multi-tenant structures.
Key Responsibilities
- Own backend architecture end to end and drive foundational technical design decisions across the entire platform.
- Design robust APIs, data schemas, and object models supporting complex 3D spatial and interior design data.
- Architect and implement distributed systems featuring complex asynchronous workflows, queue systems, eventing, and data-processing pipelines.
- Build and optimize systems for real-time collaborative editing and document revision history.
- Design and scale secure, multi-tenant backend architecture.
- Interface agentic AI and computer vision models with core transactional services and data stores.
- Collaborate closely with executive leadership, frontend engineers, and computer vision specialists on overall product and technical roadmap.
- Implement infrastructure-as-code and establish backend engineering best practices as the organization scales.
Qualifications
- Demonstrated track record of designing, building, and delivering backend systems from zero to one.
- Deep technical expertise in API design, database modeling, and complex schema architecture beyond standard CRUD applications.
- Strong hands-on experience architecting distributed systems with complex asynchronous workflows and queue-based processing.
- 6 to 14 years of backend software engineering experience, with strong evidence of expanding architectural scope and autonomy.
- Hands-on experience with modern infrastructure-as-code tooling (such as Pulumi, Terraform, AWS CDK, or CloudFormation).
- Early-stage or venture-backed startup experience strongly preferred; must demonstrate genuine comfort working autonomously in a lean (~20-person) environment.
- Located in the United States with standard working-hour overlap with the US East Coast.
- Experience with technologies such as TypeScript, Python, Go, Kafka, Postgres, Temporal, AWS, or Pulumi is an asset.
- Exposure to multi-tenant architectures, real-time collaborative document software, or 3D/spatial data structures is a plus.