Job Details

Overview

Join to apply for the Software Engineer (Backend) role at Artisan.

About Artisan: we're building real AI employees — not copilots or assistants, but autonomous teammates. Our first product, Ava, is an AI BDR that researches leads, writes emails in customers' tone, runs outbound sequences, self-optimizes, and manages email deliverability infrastructure. Human team members use Artisan as their primary working platform, replacing a sprawling stack of sales tools, and have Artisans working alongside them. We went through Y Combinator (W24) and have raised $35M+ from top investors. We're at $7M+ ARR, with hundreds of customers including Remote, Quora, and SumUp. We're currently working on Ava 2.0 and are hiring.

Your Mission

This isn't a maintenance gig. You'll design, build, and scale the backend that powers AI employees. Expect to:

• Build resilient, scalable services: architect and implement backend systems and APIs that handle high-throughput AI requests with precision.
• Own end-to-end delivery: from design to deployment, shepherd features into production rapidly with quality and ownership.
• Work cross-functionally: partner with product, design, and AI teams to ensure backend decisions serve real user workflows.
• Use AI as a coworker: directly collaborate with AI coding agents (e.g., Claude Code) to boost productivity and quality.
• Maintain engineering rigor: champion testing, observability, deployment pipelines, and reliability best practices from day one.
• Drive long-term scalability: iteratively improve architecture, manage technical debt, and optimize for scale as we grow.

What You Bring

• 2+ years of backend engineering experience in high-growth environments (preferably early-stage or Series B).
• Strong experience building scalable, data-intensive services with modern APIs and robust infrastructure.
• Proficiency with cloud-native tools — containers, orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes), monitoring, CI/CD.
• Deep understanding of distributed systems, APIs, reliability, performance, and database systems (SQL + NoSQL).
• Experience with modern stacks — TypeScript/Node preferred, but equivalent backend stacks are welcome.
• Demonstrated track record of ownership — leading parts of systems independently and shipping with impact.
• Excellent communication, clarity in articulating architecture to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

What Makes This Role Stand Out

• End-to-end ownership: you own feature delivery; build systems that support intelligent, autonomous AI teammates.
• Scalable, reliable systems: backend must handle growth and complexity; high-throughput pipelines serving AI agents across many customers.
• Hands-on infrastructure work: deploy, monitor, tune; shaping the platform that automates itself (AI agents included).
• Collaborative, multidisciplinary environment: work with product, design, ops, AI engineers, and product partners to define AI capabilities.
• Balance innovation and technical debt: iterate quickly while maintaining system health; ship fast but sustainably.

Why Artisan is the Next Career-Defining Move

• You'll build infrastructure powering AI employees — a new product category.
• Real equity upside and compensation aligned with high expectations and high impact.
• High-velocity environment: release often, learn fast, iterate weekly.
• Mission-driven: reshape how businesses scale by putting AI on the front lines.

Details

• Role: Engineering
• Eng type: Backend
• Job type: Full-time
• Experience: 2+ years
• Location: San Francisco or NYC (in-person)
• Remote: In rare circumstances
• US visas: Will sponsor