Senior Software Engineer, Backend (Agentic AI)
Sift Stack, Inc. · San Francisco, CA
$200,000–$250,000
Jul 22, 2026
San Francisco, CA
Jul 23, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
This role centers on building AI agent systems that help hardware engineers analyze large volumes of telemetry data — covering tool interfaces, sandboxed code execution, context management, distributed job orchestration on Kubernetes, and evaluation pipelines. It carries genuine product ownership, including direct customer engagement to shape what gets built. Best suited to a senior backend engineer with an interest in applied agentic AI and large-scale data systems.
Senior level · 8+ years · Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA · Full-time
Pay in the description: $170,000–$220,000
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 4 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 2,950 people in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 2,200–3,850
Applicant volume Heavy — This req sits in a large pool with little in its requirements to thin it, and auto-apply tools fire at everything in the occupation. Applying early and leading with the rare skills below is what gets read.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $164,459 (middle half $130,334–$195,752). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (9)
The role title carries no seniority level, so advertised seniority is Unspecified; the 8+ years requirement and end-to-end product ownership scope support a Senior classification.
Go, Python, and Rust are listed together as interchangeable backend language options ('technologies like Go, Python, Rust, or similar') in the required qualifications; Go is listed first and is also the primary language in the team's stack.
REST and gRPC are listed together as interchangeable API paradigm examples in the required qualifications.
All technologies in the 'Bonus Points' section (LLMs, agentic systems, MCP, Kubernetes, Kafka, Flink, TimescaleDB, sandboxed code execution, streaming/time-series systems) are explicitly framed as optional extras.
All technologies in the 'Engineering at SIFT' stack narrative (ECharts, PostgreSQL, Protobuf, React, Redux, TypeScript, Arrow, DataFusion, Parquet, Argo CD, AWS, Docker, GitHub Actions, Grafana, Prometheus, Terragrunt, Linux, Kustomize, Radix) appear only as team context, not as candidate gates.
The posting requires U.S. person status (citizen, LPR, asylee, or refugee) for ITAR/EAR compliance, but does not require a security clearance.
The role is hybrid (in-person Mondays and Thursdays at Marina Del Rey, CA, or San Francisco office), not fully remote.
Flink appears both in the Bonus Points section (as a streaming system) and in the team's data stack; it is captured once and marked preferred.
Kafka and Flink are listed together as streaming system examples in Bonus Points; they are distinct technologies used alongside each other, so emitted as separate skills — Kafka with Flink as an alternative reflects the 'or' framing in that specific mention ('Kafka, Flink, TimescaleDB').
Read the full posting
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