Pulley · 1 month ago
Staff Backend Engineer, AI
United States
Full-time
Remote
Senior Level, Lead/Staff
$200K/yr - $240K/yr
7+ years expPulley is a company focused on simplifying equity management for startups, aiming to redefine how early-stage leaders build and manage their companies in an AI-native world. The Staff Backend Engineer will architect and build foundational systems for AI-driven products, owning the design and implementation of scalable backend services that automate complex equity workflows.
Financial ServicesFinTechInformation ServicesSoftware
Responsibilities
Architect distributed systems that power AI agent orchestration, handling complex multi-step workflows with reliability and observability
Design and implement core backend services in Golang for high-performance, concurrent operations and Python for AI/ML integrations and data pipelines
Build robust APIs and service interfaces that abstract AI capabilities for consumption by multiple clients and internal systems
Own the technical roadmap for backend infrastructure supporting LLM integrations, vector search, and real-time data processing
Establish architectural patterns and standards for service design, data modeling, and inter-service communication
Drive system scalability and reliability, implementing caching strategies, database optimization, and async processing patterns
Build data pipelines that process equity data, embeddings, and user interactions to continuously improve AI model performance
Collaborate cross-functionally to translate business requirements into technical architecture and make pragmatic build vs. buy decisions
Mentor engineers on backend best practices, system design, and technical decision-making
Qualification
Required
7+ years of backend engineering experience building production systems at scale
Proficiency in Python for AI/ML integrations, data processing, and scripting
Strong Python skills with deep understanding of concurrency patterns, performance optimization, and production Go services
Proven experience designing and building distributed systems, including microservices architecture, event-driven systems, and async workflows
Deep knowledge of API design (REST) and service-to-service communication patterns
Architect distributed systems that power AI agent orchestration, handling complex multi-step workflows with reliability and observability
Design and implement core backend services in Golang for high-performance, concurrent operations and Python for AI/ML integrations and data pipelines
Build robust APIs and service interfaces that abstract AI capabilities for consumption by multiple clients and internal systems
Own the technical roadmap for backend infrastructure supporting LLM integrations, vector search, and real-time data processing
Establish architectural patterns and standards for service design, data modeling, and inter-service communication
Drive system scalability and reliability, implementing caching strategies, database optimization, and async processing patterns
Build data pipelines that process equity data, embeddings, and user interactions to continuously improve AI model performance
Collaborate cross-functionally to translate business requirements into technical architecture and make pragmatic build vs. buy decisions
Mentor engineers on backend best practices, system design, and technical decision-making
Track record of architecting greenfield services from concept to production with scalability and maintainability in mind
Experience with database design and optimization (PostgreSQL, Redis, time-series databases)
Strong foundation in system observability, monitoring, and debugging distributed systems in production
Proven ability to lead technical initiatives and establish engineering best practices
Experience mentoring engineers and elevating team technical capabilities
Preferred
Demonstrated experience building backend systems that integrate LLMs and AI capabilities into production applications
Hands-on work with agent frameworks, LLM orchestration, and AI service reliability
Familiarity with RAG architectures, vector databases (Pinecone, Weaviate, Qdrant), and embeddings pipelines
Experience building evaluation frameworks and observability for AI systems
Understanding of prompt engineering and LLM API optimization (latency, costs, rate limits)
Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, and cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP)
Background in FinTech or regulated industries
Contributions to open-source projects or technical writing
Familiarity with AI-powered developer tools like Cursor or Copilot
Benefits
Competitive salary and equity
Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance
Unlimited PTO + Winter holiday break
Parental leave
Generous stipends for WFH, learning, wellness, and AI tools
401(k) match (US) / Pension match (Canada)
Company
Pulley
Pulley is a developer of cap table management, communications hub, and fundraising modeling platforms to manage equity for startups.
51-200 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Pulley has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2023 (1)
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageTotal Funding
$50.15MKey Investors
Founders FundStripe
2022-07-13Series B· $40M
2020-10-21Series A· $10M
2020-03-17Seed· $0.15M
Recent News
2025-07-16
Company data provided by crunchbase