Backend Engineer - SF

About the RoleOne of our early stage start-ups is hiring a Backend Engineer to own the backend that powers Mem0's memory platform. You will design clean REST APIs, model data across relational and graph stores, and operate services in production. When customers hit issues, you will chase them down to the root cause, ship fixes, and harden the system, while collaborating closely with the frontend and research teams to deliver fast, reliable features.This is one of the first two engineering hires in SF, reporting directly to the founders. You are not a supporting engineer on an existing team. You are setting the standard.Key ResponsibilitiesDesign and ship REST APIs: define contracts, versioning, auth, rate limits, write migrations, and docsModel data and schemas across relational (PostgreSQL) and graph (Neo4j or equivalent) stores, enforce integrity and performanceDebug customer issues end-to-end: trace with logs, metrics, and traces, reproduce, fix, and write preventative guardrailsOptimize performance: tune slow SQL with EXPLAIN and ANALYZE, indexes, partitioning, pagination, and caching (Redis)Build services in Python: async, where it helps (FastAPI, Starlette, Django, DRF, Flask), background jobs, queues, and schedulersOperate in the cloud: containerize with Docker, deploy on Kubernetes (EKS), and use AWS primitives (EC2, RDS, Aurora, S3, IAM)Instrument everything: custom metrics, structured logging, tracing, set SLOs and alerts (CloudWatch, Prometheus, OpenTelemetry)Collaborate with frontend and research to scope APIs and deliver features to productionRequirementsMust-Have5 to 8 years building backend systems and shipping REST APIs to production (not inclduing internships)Strong Python fundamentals with experience in async programming and a major web framework (FastAPI, Django, or Flask)Solid data modeling and SQL skills, hands-on with query tuning and performance debugging in PostgreSQL or MySQLExperience with graph databases (Neo4j or Amazon Neptune) and appropriate data modeling trade-offsComfortable running services on AWS with Docker and KubernetesDemonstrated root-cause analysis and ownership from incident to preventionClear communicator and effective collaborator with frontend, research, and customersBased in or willing to relocate to San Francisco, fully in-person, 5 to 6 days a weekNice-to-HaveGraphQL or gRPC, event-driven systems (SNS, SQS, Kafka), and background workers (Celery, RQ)Caching, rate limiting, multi-tenancy, and feature-flag strategiesSecurity and privacy best practices: PII handling, secrets managementDeep observability experience: OpenTelemetry, SLO-based alertingPrior work with search, retrieval, or memory systemsOn-call experience and running blameless postmortemsExperience5-8 years (Must Have)Salary$150,000 - $180,000EquityCompetitive EquityVisa SponsorshipH-1B, O-1, OPTEmployment TypeFull-Time position