Member of Technical Staff, Backend

Vapi
San Francisco, US

Who this role is best for

Aimed at senior engineers who thrive in early-stage environments and have experience with AI coding agents, TypeScript, and Node-based backends.

Best fit for

  • Senior engineers with a track record of shipping developer-facing products.
    — “Worked on a developer-facing product (APIs, SDKs, dashboards)
  • Self-directed builders who leverage AI tools in daily workflows.
    — “Daily use of AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, or similar)
  • Early-stage company veterans comfortable owning product areas outright.
    — “2+ at an early-stage company

Things to consider

  • Expectation to ship features independently within the first 30 days.
    — “Ship your first product feature into customer hands
  • Requires fluency in both TypeScript and React alongside backend work.
    — “fluent in TypeScript, React, and a Node-based backend

How to stand out

  • Demonstrate specific examples where AI coding agents improved your output.
    — “with opinions about where they help and where they don't
  • Highlight side projects or open-source work with real user adoption.
    — “shipped a side project people actually use
  • Showcase experience designing evaluation loops for AI systems.
    — “Run the agent improvement loop end to end
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · TeamLevel · Senior

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

What success looks like

  • product feature shipping
  • agent self-improvement loop
  • product decisions
Typical background
software engineeringproduct management

Skills & requirements

Required

Full-stack EngineeringTypeScriptReactNode.jsProduct InstinctSelf-directedCustomer Empathy

Preferred

Voice AIConversational AILLM ApplicationsTelephonyDeveloper-facing ProductStartup ExperienceOpen-source Contributions

Stack & domain

TypeScriptReactNode-based BackendAi Coding Agents (claude Code, Cursor)LeadershipProduct InstinctCustomer EmpathyBias For ActionVoice AiTelephonyLlmsSttTts

About the role

Original posting from Vapi via Ashby

Voice AI that resolves, not transfers.

Most phone systems trap callers in menus and scripts. Vapi is the platform for deploying voice agents that know your business and can listen, adapt, and resolve in minutes.

  • The numbers: 1 billion calls. 1 million developers. 10x enterprise ARR growth
  • The customers: Amazon Ring, ServiceTitan, New York Life, Intuit, Kavak, and thousands more, from YC startups to the Fortune 500
  • The news: a $50M Series B led by Peak XV Partners, with Bessemer Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins, M12 (Microsoft's Venture Fund), Y Combinator, and our earlier backers. Total raised: $72M

MEMBER OF TECHNICAL STAFF, BACKEND

WHY WE’RE HIRING THIS ROLE

  • 1M+ developers and 2.7M+ agents are built on our product surface.
  • Every assistant lives in our dashboard: Composer, Simulations, Monitoring, Knowledge Base, Versioning, Deployments. Non-deterministic systems, real-time call observability, eval loops, and a builder UX that has to feel like magic.
  • We’re shipping the loops that take an agent from "demo" to "live in production for the Fortune 500."
  • It's freakin hard and a lot of fun.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

First 30 Days:

  • Make real calls. Build real assistants on Vapi across our main provider integrations (LLMs, STT, TTS, telephony). Get a working mental model of the platform end to end.
  • Ship your first product feature into customer hands.

By 60 Days:

  • Own a product area outright within the agent self-improvement loop or the trust and guardrails platform.
  • Drive a feature from spec to ship with PM and design, including the eval and rollout loops.
  • Use AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, or similar) as a serious lever on your throughput.

By 90 Days:

  • Operate as a full peer to engineers on the team, owning your area without handholding.
  • Run the agent improvement loop end to end in your domain: authoring, evaluation, deployment, observation, iteration.
  • Be a core voice in product decisions, with multiple shipped features on your watch.

WHO YOU ARE

Must-Haves

  • 5+ years building product, with 2+ at an early-stage company.
  • Strong full-stack engineer, fluent in TypeScript, React, and a Node-based backend.
  • Track record shipping beautiful product surfaces that customers love and competitors copy.
  • Product instinct. You read a half-formed problem and figure out the right shape before someone hands you a spec.
  • Daily use of AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, or similar) with opinions about where they help and where they don't.
  • Self-directed. You read the PR, open the product, and start building without waiting on permission.
  • Customer empathy and a bias for action: you ship, you own outcomes, and you care what users actually experience.

Nice-to-Haves

  • Background in voice AI, conversational AI, LLM applications, or telephony.
  • Worked on a developer-facing product (APIs, SDKs, dashboards) where the audience is technical.
  • You've built your own startup, or shipped a side project people actually use.
  • Open-source contributions or public writing on engineering, design, or product practice.

WHY VAPI

  • Generational impact: Build the human interface for every business.
  • Ownership culture: 70% of the company are previous founders.
  • Kind team: The founders, Jordan and Nikhil, are Canadians.
  • Tier-1 Investors: Peak XV (Series B), Kleiner Perkins, M12, Bessemer, YC.

WHAT WE OFFER

  • Real stake: Competitive salary and excellent equity ownership.
  • Comprehensive health coverage: medical, dental, and vision plans.
  • Team love: We love hanging out, and we do quarterly off-sites.
  • Flexible time off: take what you need.
  • More: catered meals, transportation, gym, and a $10k annual L&D budget.

Source: Vapi careers (Ashby)

Similar roles