Senior Backend Engineer, Firsthand
$160-220k
Offers Equity
3 days a week in office
AI agent platform for brands and publishers
Be an early applicant
AI agent platform for brands and publishers
1-20 employees
Be an early applicant
$160-220k
Offers Equity
3 days a week in office
1-20 employees
Company mission
To leverage the power of AI to drive first hand connections between publishers, brands, and consumers.
Role
Who you are
- 5+ years of professional backend development experience with strong expertise in Python and modern web frameworks
- Deep expertise in Python with production experience building high-throughput APIs and background task processing
- Strong database skills in query optimization, schema design, and experience with vector databases
- Production experience with multi-tenant SaaS architectures, including data isolation patterns, tenant-aware query design, and scalability considerations
- Hands-on experience with caching strategies and distributed task queues
- Experience with cloud platforms (Google Cloud Platform preferred) and containerized deployments
- Excellent problem-solving skills with experience debugging production issues and optimizing system performance
- Self-driven and collaborative with experience mentoring team members and driving technical decisions in a fast-paced startup environment
What the job involves
- We're looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to architect and scale our AI platform's backend infrastructure
- Building scalable backend systems using Python and other technologies to support our AI-powered applications
- Designing and implementing multi-tenant architectures with strict data isolation, ensuring secure and performant access patterns across backend components
- Optimizing high-performance APIs that integrate with LLM workflows, vector search, and real-time AI processing pipelines
- Leading database architecture decisions, including schema design, query optimization, and migration strategies
- Mentoring junior engineers on best practices for async programming, database design, and production system reliability
Our take
Until recently, brands and publishers lacked a practical means to interact in real-time, 1-1 conversations and provide content with customers both on and off their digital platforms. Firsthand is a specialised AI agent platform designed to cater to the needs of publishers and brands.
The platform offers a solution that enables publishers and brands to manage, safeguard, and utilise their data and content in direct conversational campaigns driven by tailored AI agents. This capability extends to various online channels where consumers actively seek information.
As the company shifts out of stealth stages it is conducting a pilot program with a select group of brands and publishers. As AI continues to evolve, we are sure that the Firsthand product will grow in tandem, pursuing its mission to construct the infrastructure that empowers AI-driven consumer interactions. An exciting time for the company as it emerges in to this billion dollar sector.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Company
Funding (1 round)
Mar 2025
$26m
SERIES A
Total funding: $26m
Company benefits
- Unlimited PTO
- Zero-cost medical plans
- 401k from day 1
- Benefits will evolve as the company grows
Company HQ
Midtown South, New York, NY
Leadership
Jonathan Heller
(Co-CEO & Chairman)Previously Co-founder and CEO of Multitude.ai and FreeWheel. Also worked as Chief Product Officer for Comcast Advanced Advertising.
Michael Rubenstein
(Co-CEO & Board Director)Also currently a Board Member of Vistar Media. Prior work includes Co-founding OpenStore and Founding and working as General Manager, DoubleClick Ad Exchange (AdX) Google.
Wei Wei
(CTO)Also worked as Co-founder and CTO for Flux, prior to that worked as VP of Engineering at FreeWheel.
Salary benchmarks
We don't have enough data yet to provide salary benchmarks for this role.
Submit your salary to help other candidates with crowdsourced salary estimates.
Share this job
View 4 more jobs at Firsthand