Software Engineer

Location

San Mateo, CA

On-site role requiring four days per week in the office, with flexible working hours around 10:30 AM–6:30 PM to help avoid commute traffic.

Compensation

$200,000 – $250,000 Base + Competitive Equity

Visa

Open to visa transfers and sponsorship, including H-1B transfers and TN visas. Sponsorship available for exceptional candidates.

Company Stage

Seed / Early Stage

Industry

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, AI Research, Developer Infrastructure, Scientific Computing, Enterprise Software, AI Agents, Research Automation

About the Company

Our client is building AI systems that autonomously conduct scientific and machine learning research, working at the frontier of automated discovery and AI-powered research.

The company has developed a commercial AI research platform that enables AI agents to conduct complex research workflows, improve models, and accelerate scientific and technical discovery.

The company is backed by leading venture investors and has already established enterprise traction, including customers in highly technical industries such as quantitative trading.

The engineering team is intentionally small and highly selective, with approximately 8–9 employees across engineering and research. Engineers work closely with the founding team and researchers, giving each person significant ownership and direct influence over the product and technical direction.

This is an early-stage environment where engineers are expected to operate independently, write high-quality production code, and take ownership of complex technical problems without requiring extensive onboarding or handholding.

As a Software Engineer, you'll work primarily on backend systems and infrastructure supporting the company's AI research platform.

You'll collaborate closely with researchers and engineers on agentic systems, AI/ML infrastructure, search, observability, performance optimization, and post-training workflows.

The ideal candidate combines exceptional Python engineering ability with strong technical fundamentals, intellectual curiosity, high ownership, and the ability to thrive in a small, collaborative startup environment.

What You'll Do

• Build and maintain backend infrastructure for the company's AI research platform
• Write high-quality, production-grade Python code
• Develop systems that support autonomous AI research and scientific discovery
• Build backend services and infrastructure supporting AI agents
• Improve system performance, reliability, scalability, and maintainability
• Contribute to recursive self-improvement capabilities across AI systems
• Work on agentic discovery and search systems
• Collaborate with machine learning researchers and software engineers
• Contribute to ML infrastructure and production AI systems
• Build and improve observability systems for AI/ML workloads
• Optimize performance across customer-facing AI systems
• Work on post-training infrastructure and related AI workflows
• Design technical solutions from first principles
• Own engineering problems from system design through production deployment
• Make architecture and implementation decisions independently
• Debug complex backend and infrastructure issues
• Build reliable systems that operate in production environments
• Work closely with researchers to translate experimental ideas into production systems
• Collaborate cross-functionally rather than operating in technical silos
• Contribute to technical discussions and engineering best practices
• Help establish engineering patterns and standards as the company scales
• Operate as a generalist engineer across backend, infrastructure, and AI/ML systems
• Take ownership of projects with limited specifications or predefined solutions
• Move quickly while maintaining a high standard for code quality
• Help solve technically challenging problems at the intersection of software engineering and AI research
• Work directly with senior technical leadership and the founding team
• Contribute to the company's broader AI research automation strategy

Ideal Candidate Background

Experience Requirements

• 2–5 years of professional software engineering experience
• Strong backend or infrastructure software engineering background
• Experience writing production Python code
• Experience at a recognized technology company, trading company, or VC-backed startup preferred
• Experience owning software projects or systems end-to-end
• Experience working in fast-paced engineering environments
• Experience building and shipping production software
• Strong software engineering fundamentals
• Experience working independently on technically challenging problems
• Experience operating effectively in small engineering teams
• Ability to work closely with researchers, engineers, and technical stakeholders
• Demonstrated ability to deliver high-quality software without extensive handholding
• Strong ownership mentality
• Experience working with backend systems, infrastructure, or developer platforms
• Strong analytical and problem-solving ability

Technical Requirements

• Advanced Python programming skills
• Strong backend engineering fundamentals
• Experience building production backend systems
• Strong understanding of software architecture and system design
• Experience with APIs and backend services
• Strong debugging and troubleshooting ability
• Experience writing clean, maintainable, production-quality code
• Understanding of distributed systems fundamentals
• Experience working with cloud infrastructure
• Familiarity with Google Cloud Platform preferred
• Experience with AI/ML infrastructure preferred
• Understanding of machine learning systems and pipelines preferred
• Familiarity with agentic AI systems preferred
• Experience with observability and production monitoring preferred
• Ability to reason about system performance and reliability
• Ability to make sound technical tradeoffs
• Experience designing systems from first principles
• Strong understanding of testing and software engineering practices
• Ability to work across unfamiliar technical areas
• Ability to contribute to infrastructure and backend architecture
• Comfortable working with rapidly evolving AI technologies
• Ability to write production code without relying heavily on others for implementation guidance

Education

• Bachelor's degree preferred
• Computer Science, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Mathematics, or related technical discipline preferred
• Strong academic background in computer science or engineering is highly valued
• Degree from a top-20 CS program strongly preferred
• Particularly strong signals include programs such as Stanford, Harvard, UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, and MIT
• Exceptional professional engineering experience can compensate for academic pedigree where applicable
• Strong technical coursework or demonstrated technical achievement is a plus

Soft Skills

• Extremely high technical standards
• Strong attention to code quality
• Intellectual curiosity
• High EQ
• Strong communication skills
• Comfortable collaborating across engineering and research
• Low-ego and collaborative working style
• Strong ownership mentality
• High autonomy
• Self-directed and proactive
• Comfortable operating with limited structure
• Ability to work effectively in a very small team
• Strong problem-solving mindset
• Comfortable taking on ambiguous technical problems
• Ability to learn new technologies quickly
• Strong judgment
• Ability to communicate technical ideas clearly
• Comfortable receiving and incorporating feedback
• Willingness to work closely with founders and researchers
• Comfortable moving quickly without sacrificing engineering quality
• Strong sense of responsibility for production systems
• Hungry for ownership and meaningful technical impact
• Comfortable in an early-stage startup environment
• Able to operate without heavy onboarding or handholding
• Collaborative rather than siloed
• Excited by frontier AI and automated research

Compensation & Benefits

• Base Salary: $200,000 – $250,000
• Competitive equity package
• Opportunity to work on frontier AI research automation
• Direct exposure to cutting-edge AI and machine learning systems
• High level of technical ownership from day one
• Opportunity to work directly with founders and researchers
• Small, highly technical engineering organization
• Exposure to AI agents, ML infrastructure, and automated scientific discovery
• Opportunity to work on production AI systems used by enterprise customers
• Fast-moving early-stage environment
• Significant opportunity to shape engineering practices as the company scales
• Visa transfer and sponsorship support for qualified candidates
• TN visa support for eligible Canadian engineers
• Flexible working hours around the San Mateo office schedule
• Opportunity to work at the intersection of software engineering, AI, and scientific research

Why Join

This is an opportunity to join an exceptionally technical early-stage company working at the frontier of AI-powered scientific discovery.

You'll work on systems that enable AI agents to autonomously conduct research, while contributing directly to production infrastructure, backend systems, agentic workflows, and machine learning infrastructure.

The engineering team is small, which means you'll have unusually high ownership and direct access to senior technical leadership. Rather than owning a narrow component of a large system, you'll have the opportunity to work across backend engineering, infrastructure, AI systems, and production performance.

The company is already working with enterprise customers and has demonstrated meaningful technical traction, creating an opportunity to work on frontier technology that is also being deployed in real-world environments.

If you enjoy writing excellent Python, solving difficult engineering problems, working alongside researchers, and operating with significant autonomy in a highly technical startup, this role offers exceptional technical scope and learning potential.