Hiring Partner: A pioneering, well-funded AI startup in healthcare

Location: Palo Alto, CA (On-site)

Platform: Underdog.io

About Our Hiring Partner

Our hiring partner is building the world's first safety-focused Large Language Model (LLM) designed specifically for healthcare. Their mission is to tackle one of the most critical challenges of our time: dramatically improving global health accessibility and outcomes by putting deep, reliable medical expertise into the hands of every person. This isn't just another AI startup; it's a company with the potential for generational impact on human well-being.

Founded by a visionary team of physicians, hospital administrators, and AI researchers from leading institutions like Johns Hopkins, Stanford, and companies like Google and NVIDIA, the organization is built on a bedrock of real-world clinical experience. They are backed by over $275 million from top-tier investors, including Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst, and are strategically partnered with multiple health systems. This is one of the most promising startup jobs SFC has to offer for engineers looking to merge cutting-edge technology with profound purpose.

The Role: Staff Software Engineer, AI Infrastructure

As a Staff Software Engineer, you will be a key technical leader on a team of elite engineers and applied scientists, building the mission-critical backend infrastructure that powers their generative AI platform. Your work will focus on creating the scalable, secure, and highly reliable systems necessary to process complex healthcare data and serve AI models that can transform patient care. This is a hands-on architectural role for someone who wants to build foundational technology from the ground up.

If you're searching for startup jobs in San Francisco or the broader Bay Area that offer both deep technical challenge and real-world impact, this role represents a unique opportunity.

Key Responsibilities

1. Architect, develop, and maintain scalable backend systems and microservices to support high-performance, real-time AI applications in healthcare.
2. Design and build efficient, secure data pipelines capable of handling large-scale, sensitive healthcare datasets in collaboration with ML research teams.
3. Develop robust APIs and service-oriented architectures that enable seamless data retrieval, processing, and interaction with advanced AI models.
4. Implement and champion advanced data security, privacy, and compliance protocols to ensure the highest level of patient data protection.
5. Drive continuous improvement of backend systems, focusing on performance optimization, reliability, and uptime.
6. Translate complex product and healthcare requirements into elegant, scalable technical solutions.
7. Provide technical leadership and mentorship to junior engineers, fostering a culture of excellence and collaborative innovation.

Qualifications (Must-Have)

1. Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
2. 7+ years of professional backend development experience, with deep proficiency in languages like Python, Java, or Go.
3. A strong understanding of SaaS principles and experience with cloud orchestration and control plane design.
4. Extensive, hands-on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure), including containerization (Docker), orchestration (Kubernetes), CI/CD pipelines, and cloud networking.
5. Deep knowledge of data security best practices, privacy measures, and data modeling for complex systems.
6. Excellent communication skills and a proven ability to collaborate effectively within cross-functional teams.

Preferred Qualifications

1. Familiarity with modern LLM tools and frameworks such as Langchain.
2. Previous experience in healthcare technology or other regulated data environments (HIPAA compliance is a plus).
3. Expertise in vector databases and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems optimized for high-performance AI/ML applications.

Why You’ll Love This Role

This is more than just one of the many startup jobs SFC has available; it's a chance to build a legacy. You will be working at the epicenter of AI and healthcare, solving problems that have a direct, tangible effect on people's lives. The company offers a collaborative, in-person culture in Palo Alto where the best ideas are forged together, backed by the resources and stability of top-tier investors. You'll get to work with a talent-dense team, shape foundational technology, and see your code make a global impact.

Ready to build the future of healthcare AI?

This role is managed through Underdog.io. Apply now to be considered for this and other top San Francisco startup jobs.