Senior Backend Engineer

Location: Redwood City, CA (in-person, 5 days per week)
Employment Type: Full-time

We are looking for a Senior Backend Engineer for our partner; a promising seed-stage AI startup that is actively transforming the $4 trillion CPG (consumer packaged goods) market.

The company already has paying customers (one of whom saved more than $200,000 in just three months) and backing from top venture firms (Founder Collective, Homebrew, Slow Ventures, 87 Capital, Floodgate, SuccessVP). The founder and CEO previously launched CircleUp.

About the Role

You will build data systems for the scale the company is heading into, not just today's scale, while also building product.

Your Responsibilities:

• Complex Data Work: Designing schemas for suppliers, items, prices, and documents, covering raw materials, packaging, and freight.
• Migrations and Backfills on Live Data: Planning steps, tests, and recovery procedures for live customer data without data loss.
• High-Volume Queues and Jobs: Scaling data pipelines and inbox processing to handle 10x, 100x, and 1000x growth as the company expands.
• Technical Guidance: Reviewing complex designs and establishing patterns for other engineers.
• Product Work: Building customer-facing features, talking to customers directly, and applying those insights.

What We Are Looking For:

• 6+ years of experience with production software, with depth in backend and data work.
• 2+ years of experience at a startup between Seed and Series B. This is a requirement. A career solely at large companies is not a match.
• Experience designing schemas for difficult domains and modifying them on live systems without data loss.
• Experience working with messy data (different units, names, and languages)
• Experience building queues, background jobs, and designing consistent internal and external API patterns.
• Daily use of AI tools (such as Claude Code) and shipping features that use models.
• A desire to build product with strong opinions about the interface.
• Precision in writing and speaking.

Tech Stack: TypeScript, Node, React, GraphQL, and Postgres. Experience with it helps, but is not strictly required.

This Role Is Not for You If:

• You want to work exclusively on data and pipelines without touching the product side.
• You want a defined lane and a backlog of specified tickets.
• You cannot work in Redwood City five days per week.

What the Company Offers:

• Competitive salary and meaningful equity.
• Health, dental, and vision insurance.
• Unlimited vacation.
• Direct work with the CEO.

How to Apply:

Do not send a cover letter. Send two things:

1. A system you owned: one schema, migration, or pipeline problem from start to end, detailing what was true before, what you built, and what was true after.
2. A design decision you got wrong: what you believed, what happened, and what you changed.