Staff Software Engineer (Backend)

About Artisan

At Artisan, we’re building real AI employees - not copilots, not assistants, but autonomous teammates.

Our first, Ava, is an AI BDR. She finds and researches leads, writes emails in customers’ tone of voice, runs outbound sequences, self-optimizes, and manages email deliverability infrastructure. She learns, adapts, and improves over time - just like a human would.

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, pushing the boundaries of what an AI employee can do. And we're hiring.

Your Mission

You’ll design, build, and scale the backend that powers AI employees while following our principles :

Velocity is Everything :  keep the 20 / 80 rule in mind, delay kills growth

Think Like a Founder :  ship with quality, have strong opinions, and speak up if you disagree

Operate With Efficiency :  put the customer first, write it down, and use AI wherever possible

Communication Rules Everything :  be clear and concise, give candid, unsolicited feedback

Meetings, But Make Them Useful :  don’t attend meetings where you don’t add or extract value; Presence ≠ productivity

Vibes Matter :  have a positive attitude, make others feel appreciated, we’re here to win

What You Bring

6+ 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 AWS and GitHub Actions.

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

Stay relevant :  At Artisan we are creating AI employees and you'll learn how to not be replaced by one.

Ownership and autonomy :  You'll be given trust, and expected excellence.

Compensation :  Real equity upside and compensation aligned with high expectations and high impact.

Culture :  Have a chat with our teammates, each and everyone has a clear reason about why they love it.