BJAK - Back End, AI

About the role

This role centers on building the foundational backend systems for an AI-driven productivity tool that orchestrates complex digital tasks. You will own the core infrastructure that allows intelligent applications to operate autonomously for users in a live environment. The position demands a strong sense of ownership over reliability, scalability, and the end-to-end flow of data and intelligence. You will be responsible for translating high-level AI ambitions into concrete, production-grade backend services. This involves deep collaboration with AI researchers and product teams to ensure technical feasibility and performance. Your work will directly define the user experience by managing how requests are processed and how models are served. You will be instrumental in creating the APIs and internal tools that allow other teams to leverage AI capabilities safely and efficiently. If you thrive in an environment where system design meets cutting edge AI, this role provides the ownership to drive critical infrastructure forward.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Develop and maintain backend services that support AI features in a live product, ensuring high availability and performance.
• Construct systems for running AI models and managing their workflows, optimizing for latency and resource utilization.
• Create robust APIs that will be used by various user-facing applications, focusing on clear contracts and documentation.
• Enhance system speed, efficiency, and data handling capabilities through careful architectural decisions and profiling.
• Implement comprehensive tools for monitoring, logging, and alerting for production systems to maintain high reliability.
• Troubleshoot and improve the dependability of complex, distributed systems, identifying bottlenecks and failure points.
• Collaborate with product, infrastructure, and AI teams to refine system performance and align technical solutions with business goals.
• Design and evolve the data pipelines that feed AI models, ensuring quality, consistency, and efficient processing.
• Take ownership of the deployment process, using infrastructure as code to manage environments consistently.
• Contribute to the technical roadmap for the backend, evaluating new technologies and proposing improvements.
• Partner closely with frontend engineers to ensure seamless integration and optimal end-user experiences.
• Mentor junior engineers by providing code reviews, technical guidance, and best practices for backend development.
• Evaluate and integrate third-party AI services and open-source tools to extend the platform's capabilities.
• Drive the implementation of security and compliance standards for data handling and model usage.

Requirements

• Several years of experience in backend engineering within production settings, with a proven track record of delivering stable systems.
• Proven ability to build distributed systems that handle significant traffic with minimal delay, demonstrating deep knowledge of concurrency and networking.
• Strong command of Python is required, with a solid understanding of asynchronous programming and common design patterns.
• Familiarity with Node.js is beneficial, particularly for services that require high I/O throughput or rapid prototyping.
• Practical experience deploying and managing services using Kubernetes and Docker in a production environment.
• Experience with both SQL and NoSQL database technologies, including schema design, optimization, and troubleshooting.
• Understanding of AI infrastructure concepts, including model inference, embeddings, vector databases, and multimodal models.
• A practical approach to engineering, prioritizing the delivery of dependable software that is well-tested and observable.
• Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to debug complex issues in distributed environments under pressure.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, necessary for collaborating with cross-functional teams.
• A commitment to writing clean, maintainable code and adhering to software engineering best practices.
• Willingness to participate in on-call rotations to support production incidents and ensure system uptime.
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision while aligning with the goals of the founding team.
• Passion for learning and adapting to new technologies, especially in the rapidly evolving field of AI infrastructure.

Nice to have

• Experience working with AI models from providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, or open-source alternatives, including integration and prompt engineering basics.
• Background in building AI orchestration or agent-based workflows, including task scheduling and state management.
• Knowledge of techniques for optimizing AI model inference, such as quantization, caching, or batching strategies.
• Experience managing AI services at a large scale, including multi-tenant architectures and high-throughput serving systems.
• Familiarity with MLOps practices, including model versioning, monitoring, and retraining pipelines.
• Contribution to open-source projects related to AI, backend systems, or distributed computing.

Practical notes

This role offers the chance to work on the critical connection between advanced AI models and end-users, requiring a balance of backend rigor and AI awareness. Your contributions will directly influence the speed, reliability, and intelligence of the product for a broad user base. The position is fully remote within Europe, providing flexibility while requiring strong self-discipline and communication. The engagement is full-time, with expectations for collaboration during standard business hours to ensure alignment with the team. Travel or visa requirements are not applicable due to the remote nature of the position. This is an opportunity to build technology that will serve a wide audience, making your impact significant and long-lasting. If you are interested in solving challenging problems in distributed systems and AI infrastructure, this role provides the autonomy and responsibility to make meaningful contributions from day one.