

Mission.dev
Senior Backend Technical Lead
⭐ - Featured Role | Apply direct with Data Freelance Hub
This role is for a Senior Backend Technical Lead, onsite in Palo Alto, California, with a contract length of unspecified duration. The pay rate is competitive. Requires 5–8+ years in software engineering, with 1–2+ years in AI-driven systems and strong backend fundamentals.
🌎 - Country
United States
💱 - Currency
$ USD
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💰 - Day rate
Unknown
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🗓️ - Date
January 28, 2026
🕒 - Duration
Unknown
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🏝️ - Location
On-site
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📄 - Contract
Unknown
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🔒 - Security
Unknown
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📍 - Location detailed
United States
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🧠 - Skills detailed
#AI (Artificial Intelligence) #Langchain #Debugging #Scala #Data Processing #Databases #Data Pipeline #Observability #Storage #Automation #Computer Science #Leadership #ML (Machine Learning)
Role description
Our company description
Mission is a platform for hiring, vetting and managing software development talents. It enables our clients to connect with the world’s best talent to build mission-critical software products.
About the client
We are an AI-first technology company building core infrastructure for next-generation enterprise intelligence platforms. Our work centers on LLM-powered systems, agent-based workflows, and large-scale distributed architectures designed to operate in production at high reliability and performance.
Our engineering culture emphasizes strong fundamentals, ownership, and execution. We use modern tooling and AI-assisted development to move quickly, while maintaining rigorous standards through design reviews and code quality practices.
This is a high-commitment, onsite environment for engineers who want to work on difficult problems with real operational impact and meaningful upside.
Role Overview
Our client is seeking a Senior Backend Software Engineer (Technical Lead) to take a technical leadership role in building and scaling the systems behind an AI-driven platform. This role focuses on backend infrastructure that supports LLM-based agents, distributed workflows, and data-intensive services operating at production scale.
This is a hands-on Tech Lead role. You will write code daily while also influencing system architecture, setting technical direction, and mentoring other engineers. Your work will directly impact system reliability, performance, and scalability in real-world enterprise environments
What You’ll Work On
• Own the design and evolution of backend services supporting AI-driven workflows and distributed execution
• Build and operate systems for large-scale data processing, coordination, and orchestration
• Drive improvements in system performance, stability, and scalability through continuous optimization
• Participate in and lead architectural discussions; make decisions that balance speed, correctness, and long-term maintainability
• Review code, mentor mid- and junior-level engineers, and raise overall engineering standards
• Analyze infrastructure efficiency with a focus on compute utilization, storage, and networking
Core Requirements
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience
• 5–8+ years of total software engineering experience
• 5+ years of experience building and maintaining backend infrastructure, with demonstrated experience in enterprise production environments
• 1–2+ recent years deploying AI agents or agentic systems in B2B production environments
• 1-2+ years Hands-on experience with AI agents, agent orchestration, or LLM-powered applications, such as:
Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)
Multi-agent workflows
Prompt chaining or orchestration frameworks (LangChain, AutoGPT)
• Proven ability to design, scale, and optimize ML-enabled or data-intensive systems
• Strong backend engineering fundamentals and system-level design judgment
• Experience with observability and debugging for LLM based systems (LangSmith, Arize)
• Familiarity with vector databases (Pinecone, Weaviate, Qdrant)
Preferred Experience
• Advanced degree (Master’s or PhD) in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a relevant technical field
• Experience operating large-scale distributed systems or high-throughput data pipelines
• Background building components of agent frameworks, such as:
Memory or state management
Tool integration
Planning or coordination logic
• Experience shipping production LLM systems with complex, multi-step workflows
Autonomous agents
Conversational AI Systems
Intelligent Automation
• Experience building evaluating and testing framework for non deterministic AI systems
Work Environment & Expectations
• Onsite role based in Palo Alto, California
• High-intensity, execution-focused engineering culture
• Strong emphasis on ownership, accountability, and production reliability
• Opportunity to work on foundational AI systems with significant technical depth
• Competitive compensation, healthcare coverage, equity participation, and relocation / visa support
Our company description
Mission is a platform for hiring, vetting and managing software development talents. It enables our clients to connect with the world’s best talent to build mission-critical software products.
About the client
We are an AI-first technology company building core infrastructure for next-generation enterprise intelligence platforms. Our work centers on LLM-powered systems, agent-based workflows, and large-scale distributed architectures designed to operate in production at high reliability and performance.
Our engineering culture emphasizes strong fundamentals, ownership, and execution. We use modern tooling and AI-assisted development to move quickly, while maintaining rigorous standards through design reviews and code quality practices.
This is a high-commitment, onsite environment for engineers who want to work on difficult problems with real operational impact and meaningful upside.
Role Overview
Our client is seeking a Senior Backend Software Engineer (Technical Lead) to take a technical leadership role in building and scaling the systems behind an AI-driven platform. This role focuses on backend infrastructure that supports LLM-based agents, distributed workflows, and data-intensive services operating at production scale.
This is a hands-on Tech Lead role. You will write code daily while also influencing system architecture, setting technical direction, and mentoring other engineers. Your work will directly impact system reliability, performance, and scalability in real-world enterprise environments
What You’ll Work On
• Own the design and evolution of backend services supporting AI-driven workflows and distributed execution
• Build and operate systems for large-scale data processing, coordination, and orchestration
• Drive improvements in system performance, stability, and scalability through continuous optimization
• Participate in and lead architectural discussions; make decisions that balance speed, correctness, and long-term maintainability
• Review code, mentor mid- and junior-level engineers, and raise overall engineering standards
• Analyze infrastructure efficiency with a focus on compute utilization, storage, and networking
Core Requirements
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience
• 5–8+ years of total software engineering experience
• 5+ years of experience building and maintaining backend infrastructure, with demonstrated experience in enterprise production environments
• 1–2+ recent years deploying AI agents or agentic systems in B2B production environments
• 1-2+ years Hands-on experience with AI agents, agent orchestration, or LLM-powered applications, such as:
Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)
Multi-agent workflows
Prompt chaining or orchestration frameworks (LangChain, AutoGPT)
• Proven ability to design, scale, and optimize ML-enabled or data-intensive systems
• Strong backend engineering fundamentals and system-level design judgment
• Experience with observability and debugging for LLM based systems (LangSmith, Arize)
• Familiarity with vector databases (Pinecone, Weaviate, Qdrant)
Preferred Experience
• Advanced degree (Master’s or PhD) in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a relevant technical field
• Experience operating large-scale distributed systems or high-throughput data pipelines
• Background building components of agent frameworks, such as:
Memory or state management
Tool integration
Planning or coordination logic
• Experience shipping production LLM systems with complex, multi-step workflows
Autonomous agents
Conversational AI Systems
Intelligent Automation
• Experience building evaluating and testing framework for non deterministic AI systems
Work Environment & Expectations
• Onsite role based in Palo Alto, California
• High-intensity, execution-focused engineering culture
• Strong emphasis on ownership, accountability, and production reliability
• Opportunity to work on foundational AI systems with significant technical depth
• Competitive compensation, healthcare coverage, equity participation, and relocation / visa support






