Backend Engineer
Build the platform. Own production.
Confidential AI Security Startup · San Francisco, CA · Hybrid
This is a confidential AI-driven human risk platform that directly shapes employee behavior inside enterprise organizations. Founded by alumni of a category-defining cybersecurity company and incubated by a top-tier venture firm before the raise closed, the company has secured $31M from two marquee investors.
The platform ingests complex employee behavioral data, processes it in real time, and deploys automated interventions at the point of risk. With a team of ~55 drawing from top-tier tech companies and leading CS programs, engineering density here is unusually high for the stage.
Founded by alumni of a multi-billion-dollar security exit. Backed by the same investors who backed them.
The company was incubated inside one of the venture firms that backed it before the raise — a path reserved for a very small number of founding teams. The founders bring direct pattern-matching experience on how to build a category-defining security platform at scale.
This is a hands-on backend engineering role building production-facing services that power the human risk platform. You will design, implement, and own systems that ingest behavioral data, process it in real time, and trigger automated interventions — the data infrastructure here is the product, not a supporting function.
The company is experiencing explosive growth and sales close enterprise deals faster than engineering can keep up. The line between what you build and company growth is direct and measurable.
"Data is the product, not a side function — and engineering is the bottleneck. The decisions you make will directly shape whether this company can scale to serve the world's largest enterprises."
- Design, implement, and own production-facing backend services that power the human risk platform
- Take ownership of backend systems and drive reliability, scalability, and maintainability at startup speed
- Work closely with product and engineering teams to translate customer requirements into durable platform designs
- Build and integrate with external APIs, relational DB backends, ETL/data pipelines, or distributed systems
- Contribute to cloud infrastructure using AWS, Terraform, and EKS
- Make thoughtful technical tradeoffs and build systems that anticipate evolving needs as the company scales
- 3+ years of experience developing backend software
- Designed, implemented, and owned production-facing services end-to-end
- Track record of building reliable, scalable backend systems
- Experience at high-growth or successful startups
- Built APIs, data pipelines, or distributed systems
- Owned production-facing backend services end-to-end — not just contributed to
- High-trajectory individual contributor with strong growth mindset
- Thrives in fast-paced, ambiguous startup environments independently
- Experience building ETL and data pipelines
- Experience with relational DB backends (Django / PostgreSQL)
- Experience with AWS, Terraform, EKS, and cloud systems
- Experience building distributed systems and backends
- Experience building and integrating with external APIs
- 10+ years / staff-level background — focus is mid-level, high-growth builders
- Candidates without end-to-end production ownership (contributors only)
- Process-heavy or large-enterprise-only background with no 0→1 startup experience
- AI/ML-focused engineers without strong backend systems fundamentals
- Candidates not available for hybrid on-site in SF (3 days/week non-negotiable)
Intro Call
Initial conversation with the recruiting/hiring team to discuss background, the role, and mutual fit.
Technical Screen
Deep-dive on backend systems experience, production ownership, and approach to reliability and scalability.
Technical Interview
Hands-on coding and system design evaluation with the engineering team.
Onsite / Final Round
Meet leadership and core engineering team. Walk through technical tradeoffs and culture fit.