The role
- COMP
- $200K - $230K
- EQUITY
- Competitive equity
- LOCATION
- Washington DC
- WORKPLACE
- On-site
- EXPERIENCE
- 6 - 8 years
- VISA
- None
- STACK
- Python, Go, Java, TypeScript, Vector Database, ElasticSearch, CI/CD
- INDUSTRY
- Defense, Logistics, AI
/roles — ROLE_266
Senior Backend Software Engineer - GenAI
Venture-backed defense tech startup replacing outdated military logistics tools with AI-driven command software
The company
Defense software startup building AI-enabled logistics and sustainment tools that give US military commanders a real-time view of supplies, working embedded with operational units.
- STAGE
- growth-stage
- FUNDING
- $40M+ raised
- TEAM
- ~60 people
- FOUNDED
- 2024
JD — the work
About the role
You would lead the build-out of the company's generative AI product, which sits on top of its core military logistics command-and-control platform. Demand has run well ahead of expectations, so the job is to architect new generative AI systems for production, not to look after ones that already exist. The team works on-site in the Washington DC area, and the role includes supporting deployed engineers through an on-call rotation.
What you'll do
- Lead generative AI engineering for the company's AI product built on its logistics C2 platform
- Create production retrieval pipelines, RAG, agent workflows, and LLM integrations starting from a blank page
- Own the backend design: service APIs, data pipelines, asynchronous jobs, monitoring, and reliability patterns
- Make architecture trade-offs in ambiguous product areas with little guidance
- Back up deployed engineers remotely as part of an on-call rotation
What they're looking for
- 6 to 8 years in software engineering, with significant time on production GenAI or LLM systems
- Real production experience with retrieval pipelines, evals, tool use, agents, and RAG, not prototypes
- Deep backend and distributed systems ability, designing queues, storage, services, APIs, and data pipelines
- Senior autonomy to turn a loosely defined problem into a working system and keep improving it
- Solid engineering fundamentals; the process includes a live coding exercise without AI tools
- US citizenship or a green card; visa sponsorship is not available