Backend Engineer

🎯 ROLE OVERVIEW: Backend Engineer 

Team Size: ~15
Founded: 2022
HQ: San Francisco, CA
Funding: $15.6M 
Stage: Series A
Industry: AI, Logistics, Voice AI, Automation
Work Policy: On-site 2–3 days/week in SF (NOT fully remote)

🧩 What They Do – Real-World Examples for Candidates

HappyRobot builds AI agents that automate communication via voice, email, and messaging—think of it as an AI worker that talks to your customers on the phone or responds to emails 24/7.

💼 The Role: Backend Engineer

This is not just backend CRUD work. You’ll be:

• Managing and scaling real-time voice AI agents across thousands of concurrent calls.
• Building systems from scratch—you’re not plugging into pre-existing tooling.
• Working on cloud infra, auto-scaling LLMs, optimizing voice latency.
• Collaborating with AI engineers and frontend teams on performance + customer feedback loops.

💪 Responsibilities

• Design and scale backend systems to support millions of AI-driven calls/messages daily.
• Build and maintain APIs and internal tools.
• Own infrastructure reliability and observability (Kubernetes, Terraform).
• Optimize system latency, failover, and voice pipeline stability.
• Interface directly with product and AI/ML teams.

• Salary: $160K–$250K
• Target range: $160K–$180K
• Will flex for 8+ YOE with exceptional background
• Equity: Significant, early-stage upside
• Location: San Francisco (office near Mission/Bernal area)
• Work Schedule: High-intensity (6 days/week, 9am–9pm expected)
• Visa: No sponsorship offered at this time

Tech Stack

• Backend: Golang (must-have), Kubernetes, PostgreSQL
• Frontend: React, TypeScript
• Infra: Terraform, GCP
• AI Infra: Voice NLP, OpenAI LLM APIs, Twilio, gRPC, etc.

Ideal Candidate Profile

Must-Haves:

• 4+ years in software engineering, ideally with 2+ years in Golang
• Prior experience building and scaling distributed backend systems
• Kubernetes experience (not just deploying dockerized apps)
• Strong understanding of system design, performance, and reliability
• Founder/owner mindset: independent, resourceful, bias for action
• Excited about AI agents, automation, and fast-moving product development