Senior AI Backend Engineer

River City Consulting is recruiting on behalf of a client, a growth stage enterprise AI software company. This is a direct hire role with our client. River City Consulting is the recruiting partner, not the employer. Location: San Francisco, CA, in office 4 days per week (Wednesdays flexible) Base salary: $220,000 to $280,000 Equity: offered, separate from base What you will do Own critical backend infrastructure for AI agents running in enterprise environments Define orchestration patterns, evaluation frameworks, and regression testing so model changes ship safely Set technical direction for your subsystems and mentor earlier career engineers Establish security patterns: least privilege access, tenant isolation, and auditability What you need 4+ years designing and shipping production backend systems with architectural ownership AI powered features shipped to production, with real opinions on orchestration, evals, and failure modes Experience owning a technical roadmap, not only executing specs Primarily backend (about 80%) with willingness to work across the stack Ability to work in the San Francisco office 4 days per week (relocation support available) Nice to have A mix of large company and high velocity startup experience Founder or founding engineer experience Mentoring and technical writing Work authorization: the client accepts H-1B transfer, O-1, and OPT. Pay: $220,000.00 - $280,000.00 per year Benefits: * 401(k) * Dental insurance * Health insurance * Parental leave * Vision insurance People with a criminal record are encouraged to apply Work Location: Hybrid remote in San Francisco, CA 94105