Backend Engineer

About the role

You'll join Clarify as a Backend Engineer, building the foundational systems that power our AI-native CRM. You'll work directly with founders to architect critical infrastructure—from data pipelines and integration frameworks to developer tooling and system reliability. This is a role for someone who has built scalable platforms and is excited to establish best practices from the ground up with modern tooling and AI-first principles.

What you’ll do

• Build core platform systems: data pipelines, integration framework, API infrastructure, and developer tooling.

• Design scalable data models and storage strategies for complex CRM workflows and AI capabilities.

• Establish observability, monitoring, and performance standards as we scale to thousands of customers.

• Create platform standards: API patterns, service design, testing frameworks, and deployment practices.

• Own critical technical decisions: infrastructure choices, architectural patterns, and technology selection.

• Partner with founders on technical strategy, balancing innovation with pragmatic execution.

Your background

• 6+ years building distributed systems and platform infrastructure.

• Strong expertise in database design, query optimization, and managing data at scale.

• Proficient in TypeScript, Node.js, React, Next.js, and Postgres.

• Experience building developer-facing infrastructure: APIs, SDKs, or internal tooling.

• Pragmatic technical decision-making: balancing technical excellence with business impact.

• Strong operational instincts: monitoring, alerting, debugging, and incident response.

• Excellent communication—translate complex technical concepts for various audiences.

• Startup experience preferred—you've built 0-to-1 products or scaled through hypergrowth.

• Bonus: Experience with AI/ML infrastructure, LLM APIs, or vector databases.

• Bonus: Open source contributions or technical writing demonstrating expertise.