Founding Agentic Backend Engineer (Senior / Staff)

About this role

About the role Software should be beautiful. Variant is code generation with creativity and taste. Instead of a confined conversation, you can generate endless designs from a single idea. Freely explore, discover directions you wouldn’t have thought of, and build better software as a result. We're well-capitalized and looking for a founding engineer to own the back end of Variant, where our agents operate. The ideal candidate: At least one of: Has done impactful work at a company known for its high-quality backend or agentic applications Majorly contributed to a notable open source project Has a seriously impressive portfolio Has experience building agentic applications with sophisticated harnesses and orchestration Has built the backend for an app that manages complex project state Knows that building a startup is really hard work and is fully committed Doesn’t compromise between quality and shipping fast See what needs to be done and does it Under promises, over delivers Know when to be outspoken or disagree and commit **We hold ourselves to these same principles.** We've kept our team small by design. Your code will matter from day one, and its impact will compound over time. This will be the most meaningful work of your career. We work from a beautiful space in San Francisco where we dream up the future and make it real together. We’re well-capitalized and backed by notable investors. If you've built things you're proud of, we'd love to see them. About Variant Software should be beautiful. Variant generates software that’s actually well designed. Instead of a confined conversation, it creates endless designs from a single idea. You can freely explore, discover directions you wouldn’t have thought of, and build better software as a result. We call this generative creativity. And it’s how creating software should work.