Backend Engineer, AI

About the Job: As a Backend Engineer on LaunchDarkly’s AI Configs team, you'll build critical systems such as the web application that customers interact with on a daily basis and distributed systems that power AI evaluations at scale. These systems enable customers to control, monitor, and optimize their GenAI functionality. You’ll primarily work in Go and Python, and will work directly with other technologies and tools such as AWS, CockroachDB, and Datadog. LaunchDarkly’s AI Configs team is on a mission to manage the complete software development lifecycle for GenAI features, from configuring to benchmarking to observing and beyond. This team has a huge opportunity ahead of it; we're growing fast and we need your help writing the next chapter in our story. Responsibilities: Build and maintain scalable backend services and APIs that power the AI Configs product Collaborate with internal stakeholders, including product managers, designers, and other LaunchDarkly engineering teams, to understand real-world challenges and improve GenAI workflows using our own platform. Continuously optimize the performance, reliability, and scalability of backend systems Participate in architecture and design discussions, offering thoughtful input and collaborating with senior engineers to identify tradeoffs and make well-informed decisions Keep up-to-date with the latest developments in the AI field and in software development best practices Take ownership of code in production, participate in on-call rotations, and help improve the reliability and maintainability of our systems over time. Qualifications: 2-4 years of experience with server-side programming languages (e.g. in Java / Scala, Ruby, Python, Golang) Willingness to work 2 days per week in our Oakland, CA office for mentorship and learning purposes. Hands-on experience building GenAI features or working with Large Language Models (LLMs), either through direct model integration or leveraging AI APIs like OpenAI, Google Cloud AI, or AWS Bedrock. Understanding of prompt engineering, fine-tuning models, or deploying AI services in production environments. Experience with designing, implementing, and maintaining RESTful APIs Experience writing production-ready code with emphasis on quality and maintainability Experience with distributed systems or data ingestion Strong computer science fundamentals Committed to working in a communicative, collaborative environment Comfortable navigating ambiguous challenges in a rapidly evolving domain, and excited about staying at the forefront of AI advancements Strong sense of ownership and accountability for delivering impactful solutions Proven ability to work closely with Product and Design teams to define requirements for new features in a fast-paced iterative environmen Pay: Target pay ranges based on Geographic Zones* for Level 2: Zone 1: San Francisco/Bay Area or NYC Metropolitan Area, Boston, Seattle - $136,500 - $187,660** Zone 2: Irvine, LA, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Santa Rosa, Austin, Portland, Philadelphia, Chicago - $122,800 - $168,850** Zone 3: All other US locations - $116,000 - $159,500** LaunchDarkly operates from a place of high trust and transparency; we are happy to state the pay range for our open roles to best align with your needs. Exact compensation may vary based on skills, experience, and location. *Within the United States, our geographic pay zones are defined by counties surrounding major metropolitan areas. **Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), health, vision, and dental insurance, and mental health benefits in addition to salary. About LaunchDarkly: Modern software delivery was supposed to be the foundation for a thriving digital business but reality has proven otherwise. Slow, inefficient development cycles, costly outages, and fragmented customer experiences are preventing developers from building their best software. The LaunchDarkly platform helps developers innovate on new features faster while protecting them with a safety valve to instantly rewind when things go wrong. Developers can target product experiences to any customer segment and maximize the business impact of every feature. And by gradually rolling out new application components, they escape nightmare "big-bang" technology migrations. The LaunchDarkly platform was built to guide engineers to the next frontier of DevOps by: Improving the velocity and stability of software releases, without the fear of end customer outages Delivering targeted experiences by easily personalizing features to customer cohorts Maximizing the business impact of every feature through the ability to experiment and optimize Coordinating the release and optimization of software to provide consistent experiences across mobile platforms and device types Improving the effectiveness and productivity of engineering teams, by providing insights into engineering cadence and stability At LaunchDarkly, we believe in the power of teams. We're building a team that is humble, open, collaborative, respectful and kind. We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. LD invites any applicant to review our written Affirmative Action Plan. To do so, contact People Ops at hr@launchdarkly.com. Do you need a disability accommodation? Fill out this accommodations request form and someone from our People Operations team will contact you for assistance.