Founding Backend Engineer – Scalable Infrastructure & Offline-First API

 $150,000 – $190,000 + Equity | Remote (US-based) with some travel required to New York City or San Francisco

Right now, the world’s most advanced machine learning models are hitting a ceiling. They are trained on scraped, synthetic, or inherently biased internet data that lacks genuine real-world context. We are building the infrastructure to fix this, creating a system where authentic human actions become the foundational layer for the next generation of AI and robotics.

We are a well-backed, pre-seed startup providing elite AI companies with high-fidelity, custom training pipelines. Instead of web scraping, we capture structured, queryable data from real physical environments. We do this through a highly engaging, gamified mobile platform where users are incentivized to map, record, and validate their surroundings. Because our users operate globally—often in areas with highly inconsistent network coverage—building bulletproof, offline-first backend infrastructure is an absolute technical necessity. But you like a challenge right?!?

Backed by former Duolingo, Reddit, Meta founding members you are joining us at the formative stages of the company with a mission to better represent all humans whatever their background or gender, better data leads to better outcomes for our societies and future generations.

We are looking for a Founding Backend Engineer to join early as our third engineer, own core infrastructure, and shape not only how our systems scale but also how we build as a team. Expect a fast-moving, ambitious environment where collective success, rapid iteration, and direct-to-production shipping take priority over administrative perfection and sprint ceremonies.

You will own the mechanics of our backend ecosystem:

• Engineer the Core API: Design and build robust RESTful services from scratch using a modular Node.js/NestJS architecture, handling everything from user authentication to intricate reward logic.

• Data Architecture & Optimization: Take total ownership of our PostgreSQL (Aurora) databases. You will structure complex schemas, manage TypeORM migrations, and optimize high-transaction tables utilizing MVCC principles.

• Asynchronous Systems & Queues: Develop fault-tolerant background workers leveraging BullMQ. You will manage multiple priority queues to handle critical event-driven tasks and reward distributions reliably.

• Resilient Mobile Integrations: Partner tightly with the mobile team to establish bulletproof API contracts. A major focus will be enabling offline-first synchronization and coordinating seamless media uploads (via presigned S3 URLs) even on patchy 2G networks.

• Cloud & DevOps Ownership: Drive our infrastructure-as-code efforts utilizing Terraform. You will deploy, monitor, and maintain a highly scalable, cost-effective AWS footprint (including ECS Fargate, S3, and robust security via WAF).

We value “battle-tested” experience over theoretical frameworks:

• Rapid Scaling & Startup DNA: You have lived through the 0-to-1 or 0.5-to-1 journey at an early-stage company experiencing 10x-100x growth. Because of the aggressive pace and required agility, we are strictly targeting candidates with fast-moving private sector startup backgrounds; public sector experience or long tenures siloed within a single massive tech company will not be a fit here.

• Deep Node.js/TypeScript Fluency: At least 3 years of commercial experience engineering scalable backend systems with Node and TypeScript, ideally including exposure to NestJS.

• AWS & Relational Data Mastery: Hands-on expertise designing complex schemas in PostgreSQL, coupled with a practical ability to navigate and architect within the broader AWS ecosystem.

• Architectural Independence: We need a proactive systems thinker, not someone who just takes tickets. You should be comfortable challenging the status quo, proposing new architectures, and actively driving technical direction.

Bonus Backgrounds:

• Gamification Mechanics: Previous work engineering ranking algorithms or complex user leaderboards.

• Applied ML Data Processing: Familiarity running massive datasets through machine learning tools (particularly for automated media filtering).

• Non-Traditional Paths: We highly encourage applications from self-taught engineers with a strong portfolio of shipped products.

This is a high-impact, high-agency position. You will not be writing tickets for someone else to implement; you will design, build, deploy, and monitor your own systems. Apply if you have the hands-on experience to build a world-class, purpose-driven infrastructure from the ground up.

Please note: Hurren & Hope is our chosen talent partner for this search. All speculative applicants from individuals or agencies will be forwarded directly to them in the first instance.