Senior Backend Engineer

Who We Are

We founded Pace AI to help 2.3 billion people across the world unlock economic opportunities through English language acquisition and workforce training.

We’re building Pace AI to accelerate multilingual and lower-literacy working adult learners onto career pathways, postsecondary education, and jobs that sustain their families. While “mainstream AI” tools focus on K-12 standards or assume college-level facility with English, our adult learners are some of the most resilient and talented, yet chronically underserved and overlooked learners anywhere. They are parents, caregivers, multilingual community members, aspiring GED and college graduates, internationally trained professionals, and everyone in between who doesn’t fit the mold of a “traditional learner.”

With AI that truly meets multilingual and lower-literacy adult learners where they are — at their English level and in 250+ languages (including lower-resource languages like Haitian Creole that aren’t well-supported by mainstream models) — we help learners build confidence and feel seen, sometimes for the very first time in their educational journeys.

We’re a team of product leaders, TEFL-certified English teachers, and AI/ML research scientists and engineers — with experience from top research labs across the country like Microsoft Research, Stanford, Cornell, MIT, and the Paul Allen Institute for AI Research.

You’ll tackle problems that are not only intellectually challenging—working with advances in AI/LLMs and building products from 0 to 1—but also make a significant impact on advancing ESL and lower-literacy learners everywhere. We’re lucky to be backed by leading investors in AI and ed-tech—E14, GSV, Antigravity, Allen Institute for AI Research, Transcend Network Fund, among other strategic angels like the co-founder of Chegg.

️ What You’ll Work On

As a Senior Backend Engineer, you’ll be a foundational member of our engineering team, working closely with leadership to architect and scale high-impact systems across our entire product stack. You’ll build backend infrastructure that powers AI-first experiences for learners around the world.

This is a highly autonomous role. We’re looking for engineers who can take ownership of complex projects end-to-end—from design to deployment—without needing hand-holding.

What You’ll Do

Architect and implement scalable backend systems that power our AI and recommendation engines.

Build and maintain data pipelines, APIs, and services used by educators and enterprise partners.

Optimize infrastructure to support low-latency AI interactions.

Collaborate closely with ML Engineers and Product to build personalized learning experiences at scale.

Help shape our engineering practices, architecture, and culture as an early team member.

We use the following technologies, but prioritize strong problem-solving skills, product intuition, and alignment with our values over specific experience with any one tool:

Frontend: React, TypeScript, Material UI

Backend: Python (FastAPI), PostgreSQL

Infrastructure: AWS (S3, Lambda, RDS, CloudWatch), Pulumi, Redis, Milvus/Zilliz

Who We’re Looking For

You might be a good fit if you have:

5+ years of backend experience, ideally building and scaling a successful consumer product reaching millions of users.

Industry experience building high-traffic, low-latency (e.g. streaming, multi-threading/multi-processing, polling) APIs using public cloud providers.

Strong competencies in data structures, algorithms, relational databases, schema design, and software design.

A self-directed, proactive working style with excellent judgment and prioritization skills.

Fluency with Python, with the ability to pick up other languages as necessary.

[BONUS] Solid understanding of, and experience with, AI/LLMs models (e.g., GPT, LLAMA, BERT), RAG, as well as basic exposure to classic ML models (e.g. CNNs, MLP classifiers).

Our Values

At Pace AI, we’re an elite sports team. We earn the right to be starting players on the pitch, just as we earn the right to be each others’ teammates, day in and day out.

We’re looking for a world-class teammate: someone who embodies our ABCs of culture, is hungry to learn and build with us, and is as excited as we are about making a tremendous impact in an underserved market!

Start-up life is not for everyone. We move fast and work incredibly hard.

The ABCs of who we are and how we work:

Alignment in our purpose

Bias for action

Customer is #1

Your location

You must be physically based in the San Francisco Bay Area. We are hybrid out of Palo Alto co-working spaces.

Benefits

Healthcare benefits for vision, dental, and health.

Competitive salary and equity.

Flexible PTO.