Staff Backend Engineer - Founding Team
Lead the technical architecture of our AI-native CRM that transforms systems-of-record into systems-of-action.
About Ahoy
The CRM industry is undergoing its most significant transformation in 25 years.
While Salesforce and HubSpot retrofit AI onto legacy architectures, we're building the collaborative AI-native CRM from first principles. Ahoy transforms customer relationship management from static data storage into intelligent systems-of-action that autonomously execute workflows, surface insights, and amplify human capabilities.
With the global CRM market growing to $144B by 2030 and AI in CRM expanding at 28% CAGR, we're positioned to capture a generational opportunity. We're building the platform that next-generation companies will use to outcompete enterprises stuck on legacy systems.
The Role
As our founding Backend Staff Engineer, you'll architect the technical foundation for an AI-native CRM that handles millions of customer interactions in real-time. You'll own critical backend infrastructure decisions that will scale from our first 10 customers to 10,000, while maintaining punchy latency for AI inference and workflow execution.
This isn't about adding chatbots to existing CRM. You'll design distributed systems that enable multi-agent orchestration, build data pipelines that unify structured and unstructured customer data in real-time, and create the APIs that let customers build their own AI agents on our platform.
Core Responsibilities
System Architecture & Scale
- Design and implement distributed backend systems handling up to 100K+ requests/second with 99.99% uptime
- Build event-driven architectures for real-time AI processing and workflow automation
- Architect data infrastructure supporting both transactional workloads and model training
- Create auto-scaling infrastructure that adjusts to customer demand without manual intervention
AI Infrastructure
- Implement RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) systems combining LLMs with customer knowledge bases
- Design multi-agent orchestration systems enabling AI collaboration across sales, marketing, and support
- Create vector/graph/traditional databases for semantic search across millions of customer interactions
Technical Leadership
- Make critical technology decisions (languages, frameworks, cloud providers) that will define our stack for years
- Establish engineering culture, practices, and standards from day one
- Mentor junior engineers as we scale the team from 2 to 50
- Interface directly with customers to understand requirements and translate them into technical solutions
Technical Requirements
Essential Skills
- 8+ years backend engineering experience with distributed systems at scale
- Expert-level proficiency at least one systems language (Python, Go, Rust, Java)
- Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP/Azure) such as Kubernetes Orchestration
- Strong background in API design (REST/GraphQL) and microservices architecture
- Experience with real-time data processing (Kafka, Redis, stream processing)
- Production experience with MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, or similar databases at scale
AI Experience
- Building production AI applications using OpenAI, Anthropic, or open-source LLMs
- Implementing RAG systems, vector databases (Pinecone, Weaviate), or semantic search
- Experience with prompt engineering and LLM optimization
Bonus Skills
- Full-stack capabilities (React, TypeScript) for rapid prototyping
- Mobile development experience (React Native, Swift, Kotlin)
- Previous experience at high-growth B2B SaaS companies
- Background in CRM, sales tools, or customer data platforms
- Open-source contributions or technical writing
What Makes You Successful
- Startup velocity mindset: Ship in days not quarters, iterate based on customer feedback
- Systems thinking: Balance immediate customer needs with long-term architectural decisions
- Technical excellence with pragmatism: Know when to build for scale vs. when to validate quickly
- Customer obsession: Excited to talk directly with users and translate needs into features
- Ownership mentality: Take responsibility for outcomes, not just code quality
- Learning agility: Comfortable operating in ambiguity and learning new domains rapidly
Compensation & Benefits
- Equity: Equity provided
- Benefits: Premium health, latest equipment
- Location: Hybrid/Dublin
Our Tech Stack (Evolving)
Python, Django, PostgreSQL, Redis, Docker, AWS, OpenAI/Anthropic APIs, React, TypeScript
Ready to build the future of CRM?
Email your resume and a note about what excites you about AI-native systems to [email protected]
Apply Now →
