Software Engineer, AI & Data Systems at Recruiting From Scratch
San Francisco, CA
$200,000–$280,000from the description
Aug 16, 2026
San Francisco, CA
Sep 25, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A small, early-stage AI and data infrastructure startup in San Francisco is hiring a backend-leaning software engineer to build and own production systems end-to-end — spanning high-volume data pipelines, distributed backend services, AI agents, and customer-facing product surfaces. The role suits someone with 1–6 years of experience who is comfortable making architecture decisions independently, working directly with founders and customers, and shipping across the full stack in a high-ownership startup environment.
Mid level · 1+ years · San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA · Full-time
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 2,650 people in the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 1,400–3,400
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $190,744 (middle half $167,095–$224,501). 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 Aug 18, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (6)
The experience range of 1–6 years is unusually wide; the role's scope (architecture decisions, end-to-end ownership, working directly with founders and customers) is consistent with a mid-level engineer at a startup, though strong junior candidates from top programs are likely also considered.
A CS degree is listed as 'preferred' and equivalent practical experience is explicitly accepted, so no hard degree requirement is set.
Cloud infrastructure is listed under Technical Requirements without naming a specific provider (AWS, GCP, Azure); no provider is named anywhere in the posting.
Agent harnesses and AI developer tools are explicitly flagged as 'preferred' in the Technical Requirements section.
The posting is from a recruiting firm (Recruiting from Scratch) placing candidates at an unnamed client company.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): large-scale data processing.
Read the full posting
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