Founding Backend Engineer (AI)

TL;DR

Founding Backend Engineer (AI): Building and optimizing AI-native backend infrastructure for life sciences, powering workflows that ingest unstructured data and deliver insights. Focus on scalable data pipelines, robust APIs, real-time inference systems, and LLM operations, ensuring system reliability and performance for top pharmaceutical companies.

Location: In-person role based in NYC, with flexibility for remote work on some days.

Company

hirify.global builds purpose-built AI for life sciences, designed for the accuracy and rigor biopharma requires, helping treatments reach patients sooner.

What you will do

• Design and own major modules of the backend architecture (APIs, workers, orchestration).
• Optimize performance and reliability of data processing and AI inference systems.
• Build and maintain LLM-powered backend features and multi-step workflows.
• Collaborate with product and AI teams to launch performant, production-grade AI features.
• Improve observability, traceability, and modularity of backend systems.
• Lead customer-focused feature delivery with high attention to security and compliance.

Requirements

• 5+ years backend engineering experience in fast-paced product teams.
• 2+ years of Python experience, including async programming.
• Expertise with FastAPI, Flask, or Django.
• Strong experience with SQL (PostgreSQL) and ORMs (SQLAlchemy or equivalent).
• Experience building APIs, background workers, and distributed systems.
• Understanding of how LLMs, embeddings, or RAG workflows function.
• Startup experience or demonstrated ownership in complex backend projects.
• Must be able to work in-person in NYC.

Nice to have

• Familiarity with Celery, LangChain, LlamaIndex, or other LLM orchestration tools.
• Exposure to RAG or context injection workflows.
• Experience with AWS, Terraform, Kafka, or PyTorch.
• Background in healthcare, data security, or regulated environments.

Culture & Benefits

• Competitive salary + equity package.
• Health & wellness support including a stipend and medical insurance.
• Unlimited PTO.
• High learning velocity with exposure to AI, infrastructure, and real customers.
• Opportunity to shape architecture, modular services, and engineering culture from day one.