Founding Senior Platform Engineer (Backend)
Location: San Francisco - In-Office
Compensation: $180,000 - $300,000/year + 0.10% - 0.60% Equity
At Recode HR, we are collaborating with a cutting-edge, YC-backed voice AI startup to find a Founding Senior Platform Engineer (Backend). This role is perfect for engineers who have a robust background in infrastructure or DevOps and are passionate about building scalable distributed systems. As an early and foundational team member, you will play a key role in constructing and expanding the company's real-time voice AI infrastructure.
About the Company:
This innovative startup is building the "Retool for Voice AI," enabling developers to embed voice technology across various industries. As major platforms integrate human-like voice assistants for billions of users, this startup's platform bridges the gap between raw AI models and ready-to-use voice applications. With a focus on sectors like SaaS, logistics, and telehealth, they are preparing businesses for a voice-driven future. Since launching in March, they have rapidly scaled revenue and secured Series A funding from top-tier investors. Joining now as one of the first 10 team members means you will directly impact the product and infrastructure's trajectory.
Role Overview and Responsibilities:
As the Founding Senior Platform Engineer, you will take ownership of real-time conversational infrastructure, ensuring it can handle millions of concurrent calls with 99.9% reliability and sub-second response times. You will lead infrastructure scalability projects and design resilient systems that are built to last.
Key Responsibilities:
Lead end-to-end projects focused on scaling infrastructure to support millions of users while ensuring high availability.
Build and deploy comprehensive monitoring systems for real-time performance and reliability insights (e.g., Prometheus).
Develop and implement anti-fragility measures for resilient infrastructure that can adapt and recover from unexpected events (e.g., multi-cluster rollovers).
Collaborate closely with the founding team to refine and enhance infrastructure for improved reliability and scalability.
Core Requirements:
5+ years of software engineering experience with a focus on infrastructure or DevOps.
2+ years of experience working with distributed systems and scaling infrastructure.
At least 1 year of experience at a startup with fewer than 100 employees, ideally in fast-scaling and high-ownership roles.
Proficiency with Kubernetes and Pulumi for managing infrastructure; experience with Terraform is a plus.
Demonstrated success in building scalable systems from the ground up and leading projects to ensure high availability.
Hands-on coding experience with infrastructure and container management systems.
Strong understanding of networking concepts, multi-cluster environments, and observability.
Ability to thrive in a fast-paced startup setting, driving features from concept to deployment and continuously iterating for improvements.
Nice to Haves:
Prior experience as a founder or early-stage team member in infrastructure/DevOps.
Work history with top infrastructure companies (e.g., Mux, Render, Supabase, Datadog, Snowflake).
Familiarity with Rust or Go and a passion for using modern tech tools.
A problem-solving, innovative mindset aimed at enhancing infrastructure efficiency and reliability.
Proven ability to simplify and refactor legacy systems for better performance and maintainability.
Expertise in network security, certificates, and multi-cluster configurations.
A strong engineering portfolio with contributions to open-source projects or an active GitHub profile.
What We Offer:
Salary: $180,000 - $300,000/year.
Equity: 0.10% - 0.60%.
A full-time, in-office position in San Francisco.
The chance to work closely with the founding team and have a significant impact on shaping the company’s infrastructure and growth.
A high-impact role with opportunities to lead major infrastructure decisions and development.
Key Milestones:
First 7 days: Complete a pre-scoped project, such as setting up high-availability Redis.
First 14 days: Deliver on set monitoring goals, such as implementing Prometheus rules.
First 30 days: Independently complete a project (e.g., developing a Custom Resource Definition (CRD) for managing worker pools) and enhance real-time alerting for latency spikes.
Implement proactive infrastructure enhancements to bolster system resilience (e.g., automated multi-cluster rollovers).
Candidate Process:
20-minute Zoom interview with the Chief of Staff for an initial chat and a brief technical discussion.
30-minute Technical Interview with the CTO focusing on architecture and system design.
In-office lunch with the Founders to discuss company vision and culture.
A paid 3- to 7-day work trial to collaborate with the team and assess mutual fit.
If you are a platform engineer ready for a high-impact role at a rapidly growing startup, this opportunity offers the chance to influence the future of real-time voice AI infrastructure. Apply now to join a team dedicated to advancing the next generation of developer tools.