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# Backend Engineer

- **Company:** David Joseph & Company
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA, United States
- **Experience:** Starter
- **Salary:** $120,000.0 - $150,000.0
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Artificial Intelligence, Systems Engineering, Data Cleansing, TypeScript, Feature Engineering, Data Ingestion, Backend, Data Layers
- **Published:** July 19, 2026
- **Apply:** https://www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=0d6502ecbd88f598

## About the Role

* Strong proficiency in using AI coding tools as a primary part of the development workflow (top priority)
 * Solid systems engineering fundamentals: understands how features work end-to-end and how to build data layers
 * Demonstrated startup experience with genuine ownership of what was built
 * Comfortable with high-intensity pace: 5-6 days a week
 * Experience: 0-2 years

Green Flags

 * Fluent, heavy use of AI coding tools as a core part of daily development
 * Genuine startup ownership: built and was responsible for real systems, not just features on a larger team
 * Comfortable working from ambiguous input, such as a customer meeting summary, and independently shaping the solution
 * E-commerce, D2C, or platform integration domain exposure
 * Track record suggesting the ability to eventually hire and lead a small team

## Description

Backend Engineer with a data-engineering lean, building the data enrichment, normalization, and ingestion pipelines that power the platform, plus the platform infrastructure and tooling that doesn't yet exist. You'll report directly to a co-founder on a small engineering team.

What you'll be doing

 * Build and maintain data enrichment, normalization, and ingestion pipelines
 * Build feature engineering and platform infrastructure, including observability and workflow tooling that doesn't yet exist
 * Work extensively with AI coding tools as a core part of daily development, not an occasional aid
 * Translate customer feedback and requirements directly into shipped features, sometimes working from a meeting summary rather than a formal spec
 * Contribute independently to systems and data-layer design decisions

Tech stack: TypeScript on Fly.io (recently adopted; adaptability valued over deep stack-specific experience), * Career built entirely at large enterprise or post-Series D companies with heavily defined processes

 * Relies on manual coding without meaningful AI tool fluency
 * Cannot demonstrate genuine ownership of what was built in past roles
 * Short tenure pattern without a legitimate explanation (contract-based roles ending due to funding changes are understood and not held against a candidate)


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- [Meet Your New BFF: Backend to Frontend without the Duct Tape](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/682-meet-your-new-bff-backend-to-frontend-without-the-duct-tape)

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