[Remote] Founding Backend Engineer – AI & Data

Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Clipbook builds AI-powered media monitoring and analytics tools for communications, PR, and public affairs teams. As a Founding Backend Engineer, you will architect and build core backend systems, design scalable data infrastructure, and integrate AI into real-world workflows, all while shaping the engineering culture of the company.ResponsibilitiesArchitect & build core backend systems. Drive architectural decisions across our backend stack (Python, Node.js, PostgreSQL). Own features from concept → deployment → observing users rely on what you built. We're still laying critical foundations, so we value a pragmatic, "strong opinions, weakly held" mindset — especially when decisions are expensive to unwind laterDesign scalable data infrastructure. Build and maintain pipelines for ingesting, normalizing, deduplicating, indexing, and querying massive, multi-modal datasets (text, audio, video) across news, social media, policy, and more. A lot of this is normalization, deduplication, and edge case handlingIntegrate AI into real-world workflows. Put LLMs and ML models into production for real workflows: RAG pipelines, embeddings, prompt execution, agentic systems, fine-tuned models. Production means reliable, monitored, and cost-consciousDesign systems that scale. Build systems that will hold up as we grow 10x, while being practical about what to invest in now vs. what can waitDevelop performant APIs and services. Create robust interfaces and internal services that power our product end-to-end, ensuring reliability, security, and a seamless experience for customersCollaborate closely with users. Join customer calls, hear what's working and what isn't, and build in response. Rapidly iterate to deliver solutions that genuinely move the needle for comms/public affairs teamsShape Clipbook's engineering culture. As one of the first engineers, you'll influence everything — code quality, system design principles, documentation standards, and how we build as a team. We believe leaders stay hands-on: even as we grow, everyone (including managers) continues to shipSkills2–10+ years building and scaling production backend systemsStrong across backend fundamentals (services, data models, distributed systems), with deeper expertise in one or more areasGenuine excitement to build quickly & ship fastYou take ownership. When something is broken or unclear, you fix it or flag it without waiting to be askedComfortable with ambiguity. You make reasonable calls with incomplete information, communicate them clearly, and adjust as you learn moreStrong experience with cloud infrastructure, containerization, and CI/CDA future leader. You'll help shape our engineering culture and can quickly grow into leadership as the company scalesArchitect & build core backend systemsDesign scalable data infrastructureIntegrate AI into real-world workflowsDesign systems that scaleDevelop performant APIs and servicesCollaborate closely with usersComputer vision or multimodal model experience (audio, video, image)Semantic search, vector databases, or meaning-aware retrievalLLM fine-tuning, RLHF, or eval pipelinesWeb scraping and API integrations at scaleStartup founder or early-stage experienceBenefitsMedicalDentalVision401(k)Unlimited PTOCompany OverviewClipbook is an AI-powered research and analysis platform designed for public relations, communications, and public affairs teams. It was founded in 2023, and is headquartered in Washington, District of Columbia, USA, with a workforce of 11-50 employees. Its website is https://clipbook.com/.