Backend Software Engineer - Distributed Systems and AI Infrastructure

🚨 Software Engineer – Backend, Distributed Systems & AI Infrastructure 📍 San Francisco, Mission District – 5 Days Onsite I’m working with a fast-growing AI technology company rebuilding the infrastructure behind the $280B global insurance claims industry. They are building core backend infrastructure and deploying complex multi-agent AI systems that operate across different modalities to automate high-value workflows, operational decisions and claims processing at scale. This is a high-ownership Software Engineer opportunity, joining an elite early-stage engineering team in San Francisco to build and scale production systems already processing thousands of insurance claims every month. You’ll work on: 💻 Building high-performance backend systems powering complex insurance workflows 🐍 Developing production services using Python, PostgreSQL and modern cloud infrastructure ⚙️ Designing distributed systems, APIs and data models that can support rapid customer and transaction growth 🤖 Deploying multi-agent AI systems that automate complex workflows and decision-making 📊 Building reliable infrastructure for processing large volumes of structured and unstructured claims data 🚀 Owning systems from an ambiguous operational problem through architecture, implementation, testing and production deployment 🤝 Working closely with company founders, AI researchers and a highly technical engineering team to make important architectural and product decisions Requirements: ✅ Strong backend software engineering experience building production-grade systems ✅ Current hands-on experience with Python and PostgreSQL ✅ Deep technical judgement across distributed systems, service design, APIs, data modelling and system architecture ✅ Evidence of personally owning complex systems from initial design through production ✅ Experience scaling infrastructure, applications or data systems through significant growth ✅ Ability to ship high-quality production code quickly in a fast-moving startup environment ⭐ Experience with AI infrastructure, vector databases, cloud platforms, Docker or complex operational workflows is highly valuable This is not a role for someone who has only contributed to one component within a large, established organisation. They are looking for a competitive, high-agency engineer who can understand difficult problems, make important architectural decisions and remain accountable for the production outcome. You’ll join a category-defining AI company that reached six-figure ARR within three months and multi-seven-figure ARR within nine months, with customers signing contracts averaging five years. The company has raised more than $55M, including a $50M Series A led by Emergence Capital and an oversubscribed seed round backed by an early investor in OpenAI, Cognition and Scale AI. The engineering team includes former engineers from Palantir, Scale AI, AWS, Optiver, DRW, AMD, Cloudflare, Meta and JetBrains, alongside AI researchers with publications at ICML and ICCV. The position is based in San Francisco and offers an intense, high-ownership environment for engineers who want to move quickly, solve difficult technical problems and work alongside an exceptionally strong team. ✈️ Full visa sponsorship and relocation support available globally. 💰 Package: $200k-$250k base salary, benefits and founding equity.