Lead Backend Software Engineer (AI)

Location: Hybrid in San Carlos, California, with 3+ days per week onsite and remote work on the remaining days. All work must be performed in the United States.

Salary: $185,000–$260,000 per year, plus equity.

Company

hirify.global builds an AI platform that improves the safety, efficiency, and capabilities of aviation, delivering mission-critical systems for airlines and the Department of Defense.

What you will do

• Architect, build, and maintain backend services and distributed systems for mission-critical applications.
• Design secure, scalable APIs for internal and external integrations, including real-time data streaming and web and mobile clients.
• Build and optimize data pipelines for time-series and multimedia data ingestion, processing, and access.
• Own backend reliability, performance, scalability, and high availability in production.
• Lead technical design discussions, code reviews, and architectural decisions.
• Drive backend features and systems from concept through delivery while troubleshooting cloud infrastructure issues.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience designing and implementing backend services, APIs, and distributed systems in production.
• Fluency in Python and JavaScript/TypeScript, including Node.
• Experience building, scaling, and operating backend infrastructure.
• Strong ownership of systems and features from design through deployment.
• Experience with data pipelines and backend systems handling large-scale or real-time data.
• Must be a U.S. Person and eligible to work in the United States; visa sponsorship and visa transfers are not available.

Nice to have

• Passion for aviation and improving air travel safety and efficiency.
• Familiarity with machine learning workflows or data-intensive systems.
• Experience with big data tools or large-scale data processing frameworks.
• Background in DevOps or DevSecOps, infrastructure automation, reliability, and security.

Culture & Benefits

• Small, focused teams with ownership of the systems they build.
• Fast delivery and a collaborative environment without heavy processes or silos.
• 100% of employee medical premiums covered and 25% of dependent premiums covered.
• Three weeks of paid time off and 13+ paid company holidays.
• 401(k) plan available, currently without an employer match.