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Salary: USD 180,000 - 240,000 / annual
Gradial is an AI-native marketing operations platform that helps marketers and creatives move from idea to execution faster by orchestrating across martech stacks, workflows, and people. The company is Series B-backed and building software that adapts to users rather than forcing users to adapt.
You will join as a Staff Software Engineer, Backend, taking ownership of some of the largest and most complex technical problems across the product. This is a highly hands-on individual contributor role where you will write production code, make consequential architectural decisions, and create clarity in ambiguous situations. You'll work closely with engineering, product, and design to turn ambitious ideas into reliable systems while raising the technical bar across the engineering team.
Key responsibilities include:
- Leading large, complex technical projects from ambiguous problem definition through architecture, implementation, and production
- Architecting and building backend systems that power AI-driven workflows, including real-time inference, tool orchestration, and long-running processes
- Driving technical direction for critical systems with focus on scalability, reliability, performance, and long-term maintainability
- Converting loosely defined product and technical problems into clear plans and pragmatic decisions
- Building new systems from 0→1 while evolving existing architecture as the product, customers, and organization scale
- Establishing patterns and abstractions that simplify complex systems and make the broader engineering team more effective
- Partnering closely with product and design to shape solutions and identify technical opportunities
- Raising the engineering bar through technical leadership, architecture reviews, code reviews, and mentorship while remaining deeply involved in implementation
- Owning systems end-to-end, including testing, deployment, observability, reliability, and ongoing production operation
The company values learning quickly, seeking new challenges, having real impact with minimal bureaucracy, continuous improvement, embracing AI as a core tool, customer obsession, clear communication, and thriving in fast-paced, hyper-growth environments.
Requirements:
- 8+ years of professional software engineering experience with significant backend systems building and operation
- Proven ability to independently lead large, technically complex projects in fast-moving or ambiguous environments
- Deep technical expertise in software architecture, distributed systems, algorithms, and system design
- Track record of taking products or systems from 0→1 and making sound architectural decisions with incomplete information
- Ability to break down vague, high-variance problems into clear technical approaches and drive execution
- Strong product judgment and ability to balance technical quality, speed, and customer impact
- Experience designing systems for scalability, reliability, performance, and maintainability in production
- Strong communication skills with ability to influence technical decisions and align engineers and cross-functional partners
- High ownership mindset with willingness to work across boundaries
Nice to have:
- Experience building products or infrastructure involving AI/ML systems, LLMs, or agentic workflows
- Experience in high-growth or early-stage startups where technical scope and priorities change quickly
- Proficiency with TypeScript or similar languages
