Backend Engineer
Backend engineers at AI companies build the server-side systems, APIs, and data pipelines that power AI products and infrastructure. Their day-to-day involves designing distributed services, optimizing data processing at scale, and operating mission-critical systems that handle everything from serving AI model inferences to processing observability data across GPU-dense infrastructure. What distinguishes backend roles in AI is their focus on the unique challenges of AI workloads—high-throughput serving paths, streaming data pipelines for telemetry, and infrastructure optimized for compute-intensive tasks—rather than traditional web application concerns. These engineers typically work within infrastructure, platform, or core services teams that act as force multipliers, building the foundational systems that enable product teams and researchers to move faster.
Skills
What companies are looking for in this role.
Designing and implementing scalable distributed systems and microservices
Building and maintaining production-grade backend services and APIs
Writing reliable, maintainable code with strong testing practices
Leading technical design decisions and shaping system architecture
Debugging and performance tuning of complex distributed systems
Operating and monitoring production systems for reliability and uptime
Designing database schemas and optimizing query performance
Designing end-to-end data pipelines and ETL workflows
Implementing real-time and batch data processing
Architecting systems for cost efficiency and resource optimization
Integrating with third-party services and vendor platforms
Automating workflows and orchestrating complex processes
Participating in on-call rotations and incident response
Building open-source libraries and frameworks
Designing billing and revenue management systems
Building infrastructure for model serving and inference at scale
Developing frameworks and tools for machine learning workflows
Designing systems for data quality, validation, and reconciliation
Building agentic AI systems and orchestration frameworks
Collaborating cross-functionally with product, data science, and platform teams
Mentoring junior engineers and conducting technical reviews
Communicating complex technical concepts clearly to diverse audiences
Translating ambiguous requirements into executable technical plans
Technology
The tools and technologies that define this role.
Open Jobs
447 open Backend Engineer jobs across 60 companies.
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