Backend Engineer - Help Us Build the Future of AI Team Development

About Pinnacle

Pinnacle is a rapidly-growing Seed-stage AI startup revolutionizing how we work. Our flagship product, Pascal, is an AI performance and career coach that brings world-class executive coaching to every employee, anytime, anywhere. Imagine a 24/7 companion who intimately understands your aspirations and team context, and who offers proactive insights to help you uncover blind spots and excel day-to-day.

If you’ve ever had questions about how to navigate a difficult colleague, struggled through a difficult conversation, wished for more feedback, or wondered why work is so hard, Pinnacle is for you! Join us, and help everyone—from top-performing ICs to frontline managers to C-suite executives—unlock their full potential.

We’re trusted by top startups and unicorns to ensure their teams are performing at the peak of their game. Our Stanford GSB-founded team already has decades of experience in AI & executive coaching, and we’re backed by eLab Ventures, Incisive VC, the Sarah Smith Fund, 57blocks, Jolly VC, Embedding VC, People Tech Partners, StartX, Alchemist Accelerator, and top angels.

About the Role

As our Backend Engineer, you'll be at the intersection of AI and scalable software architecture, building the foundation that powers personalized career coaching at scale. You'll work in a fast-paced, fully remote environment where your code ships quickly and your impact is immediately visible. As an early team member at our venture-backed startup, you'll have the opportunity to shape our core infrastructure, work directly with cutting-edge AI technology, and make decisions that will impact thousands of users. These will be just some of your key responsibilities:

• Implement scalable backend infrastructure for our AI-powered career coaching chatbot
• Integrate third party systems for data enrichment
• Develop and maintain machine learning pipelines for text generation and model improvements
• Implement efficient data processing and storage solutions using MongoDB
• Create and optimize API endpoints for seamless frontend and AI model interactions
• Ensure high performance, reliability, and low-latency responses in AI-driven interactions
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including ML researchers, frontend developers, and product managers

About You

You should apply if you meet the following qualifications:

• Required:
  • 3-5 years of professional backend development experience 
  • Expert-level Python programming skills (including experience with pytest)
  • Experience with Node.js
  • Extensive experience with RESTful API design and implementation
  • Understanding of prompt engineering techniques and agent orchestration
• Preferred:
  • Strong background in MongoDB database design and optimization Experience with containerization (Docker) and cloud deployment strategies (GCP, Heroku) 
  • Basic knowledge of front-end web development using React
  • Expert with microservices architecture
  • Experience integrating HRIS or similar data pipelines

And if you are someone who has:

• A deep passion for the problem space we’re operating in. 
• Worked on small teams (and preferably at small companies or startups) where flexibility > process
• Worked iteratively through product requirements, coalescing the undefined to make it defined, working to make the unknowns known, and adjusting to changes discovered along the way
• Learned that you never have all the answers but know how to ask questions, research, and experiment to find them
• Learned that asking for help from the team when you’re stuck is better than struggling through it alone