Backend-Leaning Product Engineer

About the role

We're a small, high-ownership product team in the staffing and recruiting space, building real-world AI and automation products. As a Backend-Leaning Product Engineer , you'll own customer-facing features end-to-end - from design through shipping and iteration - with minimal process overhead and maximum autonomy. You'll work closely with founders and customers in a hybrid San Francisco setting, making meaningful product and engineering trade-offs every day. This is an ideal role for an early or founding engineer who thrives in fast-moving, ambiguous environments and has a track record of shipping real products - especially 0-to-1 or in messy, integration-heavy contexts.

Responsibilities

• Own features end-to-end: from ideation and design through implementation, launch, and iteration.
• Make independent product and engineering decisions without heavy PM support.
• Build and maintain backend systems, APIs, data models, and automation pipelines.
• Integrate with external tools, legacy systems, and third-party services.
• Design workflows and orchestration layers for AI/automation-driven products.
• Debug production issues quickly and exercise strong engineering judgment under pressure.
• Handle full-stack work when required, while maintaining a clear backend ownership focus.
• Collaborate directly with founders, customers, and cross-functional stakeholders.

Requirements

• Required:
• Backend-focused software engineering experience - able to design, implement, and ship customer-facing backend features.
• Demonstrated ownership of the full lifecycle of customer-facing features: ideation, implementation, and feedback loops.
• Strong cross-functional collaboration and communication skills (product, design, data).
• Must be legally eligible to work in the US without employer sponsorship.
• Based in San Francisco or willing to relocate; hybrid/in-office presence required.
• Experience in early-stage startup or high-ambiguity environments.
• Systems integration experience with external APIs and third-party services.
• Applied AI experience: agentic workflows, RAG pipelines, LLM-enabled features.
• Python proficiency; modern web/backend stacks are also welcome - engineering quality matters more than a specific stack.
• Founder, co-founder, or founding engineer background.
• Not a good fit if you are: frontend-only, data-only or internal-tools-only, pure DevOps/SRE without product ownership, pure research/ML without shipping experience, or primarily motivated by corporate titles and structure.
• Location
• This role is on-site / hybrid in San Francisco, CA . Candidates must be based in SF or open to relocating. Visa sponsorship is not available.
• Compensation & Benefits
• Base salary: up to $275,000 depending on experience.
• Equity: meaningful equity stake commensurate with an early-stage hire.

Benefits

Your Match

How well this role fits your profile.

Company Intel

What employees say

Worked at Clera? Share your experience