AI
Founding Software Engineer, Backend
- Experience5 - 10 years — as a backend software engineer
- Compensation$225K - $275K
- Salary detail<p><strong>$225K–$275K base salary</strong> + competitive equity grant + top-tier benefits (medical, dental, vision). Flexibility exists for exceptional candidates with strong senior/staff-level experience.</p>
- Equity<p><strong>Competitive equity grant.</strong> The hiring manager emphasized that senior hires would be positioned for leadership and encouraged to lean into equity as part of their total compensation. As an early-stage startup backed by <strong>Khosla Ventures</strong> and <strong>Air Street Capital</strong>, equity carries significant upside potential.</p>
- Work policyOn-site 5 days/week at the company's San Francisco office. No relocation support — candidates must already be based in the SF Bay Area and able to start immediately. No remote or hybrid flexibility.
- LocationSan Francisco, CA
- TypeFull-time
- Tech stackTypeScript, AWS, S3, Lambda, RDS, SQS, ECS, FastAPI, Docker, CI/CD
The Opportunity
What we're looking for:
We need an experienced backend engineer with 5-10 years of experience who has hands-on industry experience building agentic systems and working with LLMs. You should be deeply technical — able to understand algorithms, data structures, and system design at a fundamental level — and have a proven track record at early-stage or high-growth startups. You'll serve as a technical lead and set the standard for engineering excellence on a small, high-caliber team.
What you'll do:
Design and develop scalable backend systems that power the creative engine behind GTV, the company's AI video platform
Build core infrastructure for agentic workflows, video generation pipelines, reinforcement learning loops, and real-time data processing
Take ownership of distributed systems architecture and drive reliability through automated testing, performance benchmarking, and end-to-end observability
Partner closely with researchers, engineers, and designers to develop new product features and APIs
Lead by example as a senior technical voice on the team — writing excellent code, setting engineering guidelines, and raising the bar for the entire org
Write clear documentation, define agent skills, and communicate technical decisions effectively in a fast-moving, in-person startup environment
About the Company
The company is an AI video company building GTV, a platform that combines creativity and automation to deliver next-generation video content. The company's technology autonomously creates high-quality personalized videos for brands, agencies, and media companies.
Backed by Khosla Ventures, Air Street Capital, and prominent angels from DeepMind and Vercel, the company is tackling a massive market with competitors doing $300M annually. The company has early traction with customers paying $5K/month and a 100% renewal rate. The company's founding team includes senior people from Instagram, TikTok, and NVIDIA, bringing deep expertise in AI, video, and consumer platforms. The company operates with a fast-moving, founder-led culture where every team member has outsized impact on the company's trajectory.
Founded in 2023, team size around 10 employees, $8M in total funding raised.
About the Team
The company is a small, tight-knit team of builders with backgrounds from Instagram, TikTok, and NVIDIA. The company is led by CEO Omid Aziz and co-founder Gerard, who are deeply hands-on in sales, product, and strategy.
Working at the company means:
Direct access to leadership — you'll work side-by-side with the founders daily
Speed and autonomy — decisions happen fast, and everyone owns their outcomes
Ground-floor impact — as an early team member, you'll shape the company's culture and trajectory
Remote flexibility — the team operates remotely with a San Francisco headquarters
The company values hustle, resourcefulness, and a bias toward action. They hire people who are hungry, move fast, and thrive in ambiguity.
The Product
GTV is the company's AI-powered video platform that autonomously creates high-quality, personalized video content at scale. The platform combines cutting-edge AI with creative automation to help brands, agencies, and media companies produce next-generation video without traditional production overhead.
GTV translates advanced AI capabilities into measurable business outcomes for customers — enabling them to produce more content, faster, and with greater personalization than ever before. Early customers are already seeing strong value, with $5K/month contracts and 100% renewal rates demonstrating clear product-market fit.
Application Questions
- Can you walk us through your experience building agentic systems or AI-powered products in a professional setting?
- Walk us through a backend system you designed end to end: the architecture, any tradeoffs, and what you'd change.