Job Description
Principal/Staff Backend Engineer
Location: SF
Start Date: By May 2026
Compensation: $225K - $300K + equity
About the Opportunity
Rubiboo is a headhunting firm. We are collaborating with a YC-backed, high-growth AI startup at the forefront of autonomous software systems. The company is experiencing rapid scale and already serves hundreds of customers globally.
As they expand, they are looking to bring on a Staff Backend Engineer to design, build, and scale the core infrastructure powering their AI systems.
The Role
This is a high-impact, hands-on engineering role focused on building scalable backend systems using TypeScript. You will work closely with product and AI teams to ship reliable, high-performance systems in a fast-moving environment.
Key Responsibilities
- Design and build scalable backend services and APIs using TypeScript
- Architect systems that handle high throughput, reliability, and performance requirements
- Collaborate closely with product, AI, and frontend teams to ship end-to-end features
- Own services in production, including monitoring, debugging, and performance optimization
- Contribute to system design, technical strategy, and engineering best practices
- Improve developer experience, tooling, and infrastructure
Must-Have Requirements (in order of importance)
- Strong backend engineering experience with TypeScript (Node.js ecosystem)
- Proven experience designing and scaling distributed systems
- Ability to start by April 2026
- Startup experience (comfortable with ambiguity, speed, and ownership)
- Availability to work US hours
Nice to Have
- Experience working with AI/ML-driven products
- Familiarity with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or similar)
- Experience with databases (SQL and/or NoSQL) and data modeling
- Exposure to event-driven architectures or real-time systems
Why This Role
- Join a YC-backed company at a critical stage of growth
- High ownership and direct impact on company trajectory
- Work alongside a fast-moving, product-driven team at the frontier of AI