Backend Engineer - Palo Alto

About Plaud Inc.

Plaud is building the world's most trusted AI work companion for professionals to elevate productivity and performance through note-taking solutions, loved by over 1,500,000 users worldwide since 2023. With a mission to amplify human intelligence, Plaud is building the next-generation intelligence infrastructure and interfaces to capture, extract, and utilize what you say, hear, see, and think.

Plaud Inc. is a Delaware-incorporated, San Francisco-based company pushing the boundary of human–AI intelligence through a hardware–software combination. With SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, ISO27001, ISO27701, and EN18031 compliance, Plaud is committed to the highest standards of data security and privacy protection.

To learn more about Plaud, please visit https://www.Plaud.ai and follow along on Instagram,X, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube

Why You Should Join Us

Plaud is building the next generation intelligence infrastructure and interfaces to capture, extract, and utilize intelligence from what people say, hear, see, and think.

• Plaud is a bootstrapped, skyrocketing, profitable company with a $250M revenue run rate achieved in just three years.

• Define the next-gen paradigm for human-AI interaction.

• Gain exposure to cutting-edge AI for Pro tools and play a direct role in our global expansion.

• Work with passionate teammates who value innovation, collaboration, and customer success.

• Grow your career in a culture that champions continuous learning and fast career development.

• Market-competitive compensation, global exposure, and a vibrant, creativity-fueled work atmosphere.

What You Will Do

• Vertical Agent Core Development & Delivery: Engineer and deliver vertical Agent workflows for Sales/Health use cases; build and iterate key modules including tool orchestration, memory, and multi-step reasoning; translate business requirements into scalable backend/service capabilities.

• Production-Grade System Engineering: Design and implement production-ready service architecture with high availability, low latency, and scalability; establish monitoring, logging, alerting, and reliability foundations; support stable delivery for both high-frequency consumer usage and enterprise deployment needs.

• Evaluation and Data Feedback Loop Enablement: Contribute to Agent evaluation frameworks, including automated testing and quality benchmarking; partner with Applied AI and Product teams to build closed-loop iterations via real-world data; ensure continuous improvement of vertical Agent performance in production settings.

• Cross-functional Collaboration & Rapid Iteration: Work closely with Product, Applied AI, and GTM teams to execute high-priority delivery milestones; support parallel iterations across enterprise PoCs and consumer-facing features; drive modularization and reusability to accelerate future vertical expansion.

• Leveraging AI Tools to Improve Engineering Efficiency: Actively adopt AI coding assistants, automated test generation, and debugging tools to enhance development velocity; accelerate iteration speed while maintaining strong engineering quality standards.

Minimum Qualifications

• Strong Software Engineering Execution

  • 3-5 years of hands-on software engineering experience, with proven ability to own and deliver critical components end-to-end

  • Solid computer science fundamentals, including data structures, algorithms, and system design principles

  • Ability to consistently deliver high-quality output in fast-paced environments

• Backend / Distributed Systems Expertise

  • Proficiency in at least one backend language (Python, Go, Java, C++, etc.)

  • Experience building scalable online services, including API design, async workflows, and microservice architectures

  • Familiarity with distributed systems fundamentals: databases, caching, messaging systems and performance optimization

• Production-grade Engineering Excellence

  • Strong experience delivering production systems with a focus on reliability, latency, and scalability

  • Knowledge of observability best practices, including logging, monitoring, alerting, and tracing

  • Commitment to engineering rigor through automated testing, CI/CD pipelines, and disciplined code review

• Interest and Capability in AI Agent Productization

  • Strong interest in LLM applications, Al Agents, or workflow automation, and driving them into real-world products

  • Ability to transform prototypes into scalable, maintainable, production-ready solutions

  • Understanding of unique challenges in AI systems such as evaluation, safety, and iteration feedback loops

• Ownership and Cross-functional Collaboration

  • Strong end-to-end ownership mindset, able to execute effectively under ambiguity

  • Proven ability to collaborate closely with Product, Applied AI, and GTM teams toward shared business outcomes

  • Strong problem-solving skills and accountability for user experience and delivery impact

What We Offer

• Founding Team: Opportunity to join the founding team of this new initiative, with meaningful ownership and impact on a fast-growing startup.

• Competitive Compensation: $175K-$285K base salary+performance bonus+Equity.

• Comprehensive Benefits: Top-tier healthcare for employees and dependents, including dental and vision, and a generous employer subsidy.

• Retirement Planning: 401(k) plan for full time employees with company matching.

• Paid Time Off: Unlimited PTO, plus 13 paid holidays.

• New Parent Leave: 12 weeks of paid time off to spend time with your new family, regardless of gender.

• Hybrid Office: Minimum of 3x in office per week.

• Gear: New hires are equipped with their choice of new top-of-the-line laptops and workstation setups.

• Perks: Best office equipment. Annual offsites. Free office drinks and snacks.

Plaud is and will continue to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.