Company

Technology

Backend-leaningProductEngineer

San Francisco, California, United States FULL TIME
Market Sentiment
HIGH DEMAND

Neural analysis suggests this role is
optimal for Mid+ candidates.

The Brief

“Backend-leaning Product Engineer. Skills: Backend systems, APIs, Data modeling, Automation. Own features end-to-end. Make product decisions”

What You'll Achieve.

Shipping features; Shipping real products

Industry & Context.

Technology
Problems you'll solve

Engineering judgment

What They're Looking For.

Must Have

Track record of shipping real products, Experience with backend systems, Experience with APIs, Experience with data modeling, Experience with automation, Experience with integrations, Python experience

Nice to Have

Applied AI experience, Workflow/orchestration experience, Agentic workflows experience, RAG experience, LLM-enabled features experience

What You'll Do.

Own features end-to-end

Make product decisions

Make engineering decisions

Execute under pressure

Deliver engineering results

Build backend systems

Maintain backend systems

Build automation pipelines

Maintain automation pipelines

Integrate with external tools

Integrate with legacy systems

Integrate with third-party services

Debug production issues

Exercise engineering judgment

How You'll Work.

Team & Collaboration

Founders; Customers; Cross-functional stakeholders; Small startup team

Full Job Description

ABOUT THE ROLE Join a small, high-ownership product team as a backend-leaning product engineer focused on building real-world AI and automation products. This role matters because you'll own customer-facing features end-to-end, navigate messy integrations and legacy systems, and make product and engineering trade-offs with speed and strong judgment. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Own features end-to-end from design through shipping and iteration - Make product and engineering decisions independently without heavy PM support - Execute under pressure and deliver high-quality engineering results, not just plans - Build and maintain backend systems, APIs, data models, and automation pipelines - Integrate with external tools, legacy systems, and messy third-party services - Design workflows and orchestration for AI/automation-driven products - Work comfortably in a very small, fast-moving startup team with little structure - Balance full-stack work when required, with a clear emphasis on backend ownership - Debug production issues and exercise strong engineering judgment - Collaborate closely with founders, customers, and cross-functional stakeholders WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR - Early engineer, founding engineer, startup generalist, or strong product/backend engineer from a scaling startup - Track record of shipping real products, ideally 0-to-1 or in ambiguous/messy environments - Experience with backend systems, APIs, data modeling, automation, and integrations - Applied AI or workflow/orchestration experience (agentic workflows, RAG, LLM-enabled features) is a plus - Python experience is a plus; modern web/backend stacks are acceptable—stack fit matters less than raw engineering quality - Demonstrated ownership of customer-facing features and close work with founders or customers - Clear motivation for early-stage startup work and comfort with ambiguity and speed - Not a fit: frontend-only, data-only/internal-tools-only, pure DevOps/SRE without product ownership, pure research/ML with

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