# Senior Backend Engineer at Instrumentl

- Company: Instrumentl (YC S16)
- What the company does: Instrumentl automates grant discovery and management for nonprofits. Backed by Y Combinator and 500 Global.
- Company website: https://www.instrumentl.com
- Type: Startups
- Level: Senior
- Location: Remote (US)
- Work setup: Remote
- Pay: $175K to $220K base salary per year (USD)
- Posted: 2026-07-26
- Apply by: 2026-10-08
- Apply: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/instrumentl/jobs/8Olsh7z-senior-backend-engineer
- Page: https://www.1752.vc/careers/jobs/instrumentl-senior-backend-engineer/

## About the role

We're hiring a Senior Backend Engineer to own AI features end to end, from rapid prototype to production and the evaluation that keeps them honest. You'll build the APIs, tool-using agents, and RAG pipelines that turn frontier LLMs into grant discovery, application drafting, and research tools our 5,500+ nonprofits rely on every day. It's a high-ownership seat on a small team, where what you ship reaches customers fast and you help shape how we build AI here.

## What they're looking for

- 7+ years building and shipping production backend systems in Python (FastAPI, Celery, or equivalent), taking features from prototype to production with real reliability practices like tests, observability, and rollback
- Strong data fundamentals: SQL, schema design, and building pipelines that power retrieval and evaluation
- Thrives in a fast, scrappy startup environment with high ownership and a bias for action, speed, quality, and simplicity

Tags: Engineering