Software Engineer (API / Backend)

Software Engineer (API / Backend)

3–8 Years of Industry Experience | Remote | High-Impact

About 10a Labs: 10a Labs is an applied research and AI security company trusted by AI unicorns, Fortune 10 companies, and U.S. tech leaders. We combine proprietary technology, deep expertise, and multilingual threat intelligence to detect abuse at scale. We also deliver state-of-the-art red teaming across high-impact security and safety challenges.

About the Role: We’re looking for a backend-focused software engineer to help productionize our ML systems for real-time use. You'll build APIs, orchestration logic, and internal tools that support moderation workflows, annotation interfaces, and monitoring dashboards. You’ll collaborate closely with ML and MLOps engineers to deliver high-reliability systems that power abuse detection, threat classification, and review queues. This is an applied role for someone who can own full backend service architecture and help turn complex models into accessible, performant APIs.

In This Role, You Will:

• Design and build secure, high-performance APIs for inference, review workflows, and system orchestration.
• Develop internal tools to manage policy configs, annotations, and review queues.
• Integrate ML classifiers and LLMs into backend systems for streaming or batch inference.
• Build and maintain system monitoring for latency, errors, throughput, and system performance.
• Implement CI/CD pipelines and ensure the reliability and scalability of backend services.

We’re Looking for Someone Who:

• Has 3–8 years of backend engineering experience (Python preferred).
• Has designed and deployed production APIs in high-reliability environments.
• Understands how to integrate ML models, inference systems, or vector search pipelines into backend applications.
• Has experience with modern infrastructure stacks (Docker, Terraform, CI/CD, GCP or AWS).
• Has strong knowledge of software development lifecycles and best practices.
• Brings a product mindset and cares about system design, speed, clarity, and reliability.
• Moves quickly in ambiguous environments and takes ownership end to end.

Requirements:

• 3–8 years of experience in backend or systems engineering roles.
• Strong proficiency with Python or another modern backend language.
• Experience designing APIs (REST, gRPC, FastAPI, Flask, etc.).
• Experience deploying production services in cloud environments (GCP or AWS).
• Familiarity with CI/CD workflows and containerization.
• Comfortable working cross-functionally with ML and infra teams.
• Clear communicator who can write well and explain system decisions to technical and non-technical teammates.

Nice to Have Experience With:

• Real-time ML inference or streaming data pipelines.
• Trust & safety, content moderation, or platform abuse detection.
• Experience integrating semantic search, vector databases (e.g., FAISS, Pinecone).
• Building dashboards or developer-facing internal tools.

What Success Looks Like in the First 3 Months:

• You've designed and deployed a stable, documented API for real-time model inference.
• You've integrated at least one ML model into a production system with sub-200ms latency.
• You've built internal tools to streamline model review, policy testing, or annotation workflows.
• You've implemented monitoring and observability tools that give visibility into backend and model performance

Compensation & Benefits:

• Salary Range: $120K–$230K, depending on experience and location.
• Bonus: Performance-based annual bonus.
• Professional Development: Support for continuing education, conferences, or training.
• Work Environment: Fully remote, U.S.-based.
• Health Benefits: Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage.
• Time Off: Generous PTO and paid holiday schedule.
• Retirement: 401(k) plan.

Work With Us: 10a Labs is committed to building an inclusive, equitable workplace where diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives are valued. We encourage applications from candidates of all identities and walks of life, and we believe our work is strongest when it reflects the world we serve.