Founding Backend Engineer

Clera

San Francisco, CA

On-site

Who this role is best for

Strong fit for experienced backend engineers who design and operate distributed messaging systems and have a track record in scaling infrastructure.

Best fit for

Experienced backend engineers with a background in distributed systems and on-call production responsibilities
— “At least 4 years of software engineering experience, including substantial on-call ownership of production systems handling meaningful traffic.”
Candidates who have built scalable, reliable messaging or event-driven systems in TypeScript or Python
— “Experience shipping production software in TypeScript or Python and building reliable messaging or event-driven systems.”

Things to consider

On-site presence in San Francisco is required, limiting remote flexibility
— “On-site in San Francisco, California, United States.”
Visa sponsorship is not available, which may restrict eligibility for non-US candidates
— “Visa sponsorship is not available.”

How to stand out

Highlight experience with distributed systems and production reliability in your resume and interviews
— “Deep experience with distributed systems, including queues, workers, retries, idempotency, and production failure modes.”
Emphasize your ability to manage data security and privacy in backend systems
— “Manage data security and privacy, including credential encryption, Postgres schemas and migrations, and data deletion workflows.”
Showcase your track record in capacity planning and performance optimization during scaling phases
— “Plan capacity, load-test services, optimize databases, and address bottlenecks as systems scale.”
Demonstrate your experience with observability and distributed tracing in backend architectures
— “Build observability and tracing to track latency and costs across messages, models, and tools.”
Include examples of your work with AI-assisted development and code verification
— “Familiarity with AI-assisted development workflows and the ability to verify and take ownership of generated code.”

Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

Design and operate messaging pipelines
Build agent runtime
Implement scheduling
Manage data security and privacy
Build observability and tracing

Typical background

4+ years of software engineering experience

Skills & requirements

Required

Distributed SystemsPostgreSQLCloud InfrastructureTypescript/pythonObservabilityCapacity Planning

Preferred

Ai-assisted Development Workflows

Stack & domain

TypeScriptPythonPostgreSQLCloud InfrastructureInfrastructure As CodeDistributed SystemsQueuesWorkersRetriesIdempotencyProduction Failure ModesCapacity PlanningObservabilityDistributed TracingMeasuring Latency And CostsOn-call OwnershipDecision MakingRecruitingMentoringAI AssistantBackend SystemsMessage DeliveryLong-running Agent TasksScheduled Actions

About the role

Original posting from Clera via Ashby

ABOUT THE ROLE
Own the backend systems behind an AI assistant that communicates through text, email, and phone. As a hands-on founding engineer, you will design, build, and operate reliable infrastructure for message delivery, long-running agent tasks, and scheduled actions.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
Design and operate messaging pipelines with reliable ordering, retries, and delivery across communication channels.
Build an agent runtime for background tasks, managing concurrency, timeouts, cancellation, and recovery from model or tool failures.
Implement scheduling for future actions, ensuring they run reliably and in the correct time zone.
Plan capacity, load-test services, optimize databases, and address bottlenecks as systems scale.
Manage data security and privacy, including credential encryption, Postgres schemas and migrations, and data deletion workflows.
Build observability and tracing to track latency and costs across messages, models, and tools.
Establish backend engineering practices and help recruit and mentor future team members.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
At least 4 years of software engineering experience, including substantial on-call ownership of production systems handling meaningful traffic.
Deep experience with distributed systems, including queues, workers, retries, idempotency, and production failure modes.
A track record of scaling systems through rapid growth and making sound decisions about what to address immediately.
Production experience with Postgres, including schema design, migrations, and performance tuning, as well as cloud infrastructure and infrastructure as code.
Experience shipping production software in TypeScript or Python and building reliable messaging or event-driven systems.
Experience with capacity planning, observability, distributed tracing, and measuring latency and costs.
Familiarity with AI-assisted development workflows and the ability to verify and take ownership of generated code.
COMPENSATION & BENEFITS
Salary range: $200,000 to $300,000 annually. Visa sponsorship is not available.
LOCATION
On-site in San Francisco, California, United States.

Source: Clera careers (Ashby)