Staff Engineer

About the Role This is a foundational engineering role at an early-stage AI/data startup, working directly alongside founding leadership to build the core infrastructure powering a real-time people data and AI agent platform. You'll have genuine end-to-end ownership — from ambiguous problem definition through production deployment — and a direct hand in shaping long-term technical strategy. What You'll Do Design, build, and operate core infrastructure including APIs, LLM-powered workflows, scraping systems, and large-scale knowledge graph architecture. Architect and maintain production-grade systems capable of handling millions of API requests, with a focus on performance, cost efficiency, and reliability across cloud and Linux server environments. Own projects end-to-end, from initial scoping through deployment and iteration, shipping quickly without compromising system integrity. Collaborate directly with senior leadership on technical decisions, roadmap priorities, and foundational architectural choices. Contribute broadly across the stack, including developer documentation, internal tooling, technical tutorials, and experimental builds that showcase and stress-test platform APIs. What We're Looking For 10+ years of professional engineering experience with a strong track record of shipping to production at scale. Hands-on experience with Linux servers in production environments. Experience with agent orchestration, LLMs, or web scraping. Comfort working across distributed systems, cloud infrastructure (AWS or GCP), data pipelines, and microservices. High agency, first-principles thinking, and the ability to thrive in ambiguity. Background at a high-growth tech company or early-stage startup; prior founding experience is a strong plus. Must be authorized to work in the US — visa sponsorship is not available. Compensation & Benefits Salary range: $250,000 – $300,000 USD annually. Visa sponsorship is not available. Location On-site in Los Angeles, CA, United States.