Backend Product Engineer

Tolan is an Embodied Companion — a cute AI alien you talk with naturally, like a friend. Tolans have their own personality and preferences, and over time form memories about you, your life, and your shared friendship.

We're an experienced team that previously founded Even, acquired for $300M in 2022. Tolan is backed by the designers and founders behind Instagram, Retro, Behance, Vimeo, and Notion. Our team works hard, with an emphasis on autonomy and ownership. We're building together in-person in downtown SF.

The Role

We're hiring a Backend Product Engineer to build and maintain the systems that make Tolan possible: a mix of backend distributed systems and LLM engineering. Our stack is built primarily with Node.js (TypeScript), Python, PostgreSQL, and Redis.

What You'll Do

• Build and maintain the distributed backend systems that power Tolan's core product experience.

• Contribute to LLM engineering work that brings Tolan's AI capabilities to life.

• Work cross-functionally with our frontend, design, and applied AI teams.

Who We're Looking For

• Relevant experience. You have at least 4 years of backend engineering experience and can hit the ground running.

• TypeScript or Python expert. You use deep language expertise to rapidly prototype and iterate on user-facing features.

• Systems thinker. You apply systems thinking to ensure great user experience..

• Scale-tested. You've built low-latency systems that real users depend on at scale.

• Small team operator. You do your best work with high ownership and minimal layers.

• AI-native. You've deeply integrated AI into how you work and build.

• Bias to ship. You love to ship quickly and make contact with reality as often as possible.

Compensation: $200,000-300,000 base salary + equity + benefits