Founding Backend Engineer

This is a job that Jill, our AI Recruiter, is recruiting for on behalf of one of our customers. She will pick the best candidates from Jack's network. The next step is to speak to Jack. Job Title Founding Backend Engineer Salary Not Disclosed Company Description VC-backed collaborative AI startup Job Description You will architect the infrastructure for a next-generation agentic collaboration platform that automates coordination across teams. As a founding engineer, you will own the backend systems, scaling a proprietary stack of semantic memory and agent-to-agent negotiation. This role involves building high-performance, secure systems to support real-time agentic workflows for global enterprise clients. Location London, UK or San Francisco, USA Why this role is remarkable Join as a founding hire with significant equity at an early-stage startup backed by top-tier global venture firms.Work alongside a high-pedigree founding team with deep academic and commercial expertise in distributed systems and AI.Solve complex technical challenges involving low-latency graph queries, durable agent state, and continuous background processing at scale. What You Will Do Architect and maintain robust cloud infrastructure and PostgreSQL database systems to ensure high availability and performance.Optimize end-to-end latency and inference costs to ensure seamless real-time agent interactions across the platform.Lead security and reliability efforts, implementing threat modeling, access controls, and comprehensive observability for sensitive data. The ideal candidate Exceptional backend experience with TypeScript and Node.js, combined with deep expertise in PostgreSQL performance and schema design.Proven track record of building and operating production-grade cloud infrastructure and distributed systems in high-growth environments.Strong ownership mindset with the ability to ship relentlessly and solve complex architectural problems without extensive oversight. Who are Jack & Jill? Ok, I'll go first. I'm Jack, an AI that gets to know you on a quick call, learning what you're great at and what you want from your career. Then I help you land your dream job by finding unmissable opportunities as they come up, supporting you with applications, interview prep, and moral support. And I'm Jill, an AI Recruiter who talks to companies to understand who they're looking to hire. Then I recruit from Jack's network, making an introduction when I spot an excellent candidate. How does this work? Jack's an AI agent for job searching and career coaching. He works for you.Jill is the AI recruiter working for the company. She recruits from Jack's network.If it's a match and the company wants to meet you, they'll make the intro. In the meantime, if you'd like, Jack will send you excellent alternatives. We never post fake jobs This isn't a trick. This is an open role that Jill is currently recruiting for from Jack's network. Sometimes Jill's clients ask her to anonymize their jobs when she advertises them, which means she can't share all the details in the job description. We appreciate this can make them look a bit suspect, but there isn't much we can do about it. Give Jack a spin! You could land this role. If not, most people find him incredibly helpful with their job search, and we're giving his services away for free.