Backend Software Engineer

Location: 100% Remote (U.S.-Based)Position Type: Full-TimeSalary Range: $175,000 – $210,000About the CompanyWe are recruiting on behalf of a privately held, high-impact SaaS platform transforming how health and human services organizations utilize data to improve outcomes and program integrity. Their configurable analytics and decision-support solutions empower state and federal leaders to make faster, smarter, and more informed decisions that directly improve the lives of the individuals they serve.About the RoleThey are seeking a hands-on Lead Backend Engineer – AI Services to bridge the gap between Data Science and production software. This is not a research position, pure architect role, or management track—it is a senior, technical leadership position within an established 3-person platform team where you will build, scale, and integrate AI/ML capabilities directly into production software.ResponsibilitiesBridge AI & Production: Work directly with the Data Science team and Chief Innovation Officer to take proof-of-concept models and turn them into scalable, reliable production services.Platform Evolution: Build and extend backend infrastructure to support model serving, LLM integrations, RAG architecture, agentic workflows, and real-time predictions.System Architecture: Lead complex backend initiatives from architectural design through deployment, establishing reusable patterns and driving build vs. buy decisions.Collaborate & Guide: Report directly to the VP of Engineering, communicating technical tradeoffs and system designs to executive leadership while providing technical direction to the platform team.Qualifications15+ years of software engineering experience with deep expertise in building, modernizing, and maintaining complex SaaS/backend platform architectures.Required SkillsStrong mastery of server-side Java and foundational software engineering practices (testing, CI/CD, monitoring, SQL).Proven experience operationalizing AI/ML into customer-facing, commercial products.Practical working knowledge of Python/FastAPI, LangChain (or similar orchestration frameworks), Vector Databases/RAG, MLflow, LLM APIs, and prompt engineering.Experience deploying high-availability systems on Linux environments across AWS, Azure, or GCP.Preferred SkillsExperience in analytics, Business Intelligence (BI), or decision-support platforms.Background or domain knowledge in healthcare or human services data systems.