Sr. AI-First Backend & Data Engineer

About the Team

This team builds an AI-native predictive analytics platform that embeds ML and AI-driven insights directly into production Go-To-Market workflows — powering real-time decisions at scale. The team owns the full stack from distributed data pipelines and backend services to ML and AI-powered capabilities that ship directly to customers.

We are building toward a model where AI components are first-class runtime dependencies, not bolt-on features. Agentic AI development is a core part of how we increase engineering velocity and deliver customer value. This is a team that ships daily, iterates constantly, and treats speed as a capability to be deliberately improved.

The Role

This is a high-ownership, builder-first Sr. Software Engineer role. You will design, build, and ship AI-integrated data systems from concept through production — owning outcomes end-to-end, including deployment, monitoring, cost, and business impact.

We are seeking a candidate who views AI tooling as a fundamental force multiplier in their daily engineering process. This position is central to our transition into an AI-native function, requiring an individual capable of making decisive, pragmatic architectural choices on reversible matters to maintain momentum. We need an experienced builder of production-grade, data-centric systems who is obsessed with delivering customer value and possesses a deep, curious enthusiasm for the transformative potential of AI.

What You Will Build

• AI-Native Systems Development. Design, build, and own scalable data and ML pipelines, backend services, and AI-powered capabilities that are part of the platform's production decision-making layer. AI and ML components are runtime dependencies in this role — not research projects or experiments. Candidates will have strong back end and data engineering skills to thrive in this space. 
• Daily Shipping. Decompose complex work into safely mergeable increments and ship them daily. Treat large, multi-day pull requests as a risk to momentum. Use feature flags, canary releases, and rollback architecture to manage risk through isolation — not through avoidance.
• AI-Augmented Engineering Workflow. Leverage AI-assisted development tooling (code generation, automated testing, architecture prototyping) as a core workflow multiplier. Evaluate and experiment with emerging AI tools and frameworks with direct hands-on engagement. Bring technical depth to AI fluency — architecture and capability tradeoffs, not surface-level awareness.
• End-to-End Ownership. Own your work from design through production deployment, operational monitoring, and business impact measurement. Accountability extends beyond the feature to CI/CD pipeline health, observability, cost efficiency, and domain-level outcomes.
• Architectural Decision-Making. Make pragmatic, timely architectural choices that balance modern AI and data technologies with reliability, cost, and delivery speed. Distinguish reversible vs. irreversible decisions and move forward without waiting for consensus on the former. Document decisions in lightweight ADRs and own the outcomes.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration. Partner with product, design, infrastructure, and GTM teams to translate customer and business needs into technical solutions. Operate with business awareness — understand how your systems impact revenue, customer outcomes, and strategic priorities.

What You Bring

Required

• 5+ years building and shipping production-grade back end and data systems in distributed cloud environments (AWS and/or GCP). 
• Hands-on AI/ML integration in production workflows. You have shipped systems where AI, LLM, or agent-based components are part of the production runtime — not just prototypes or research. You can speak to the architectural tradeoffs of integrating AI into live backend systems.
• Active use of AI-assisted development tooling as a workflow multiplier. You currently use AI tooling (Copilot, Cursor, or equivalent) to accelerate your engineering output and can articulate specifically how it increases your throughput. You stay current on relevant tooling without being directed to do so.
• Strong back end expertise in Java (Spring Boot), Python, and/or Go. Hands-on experience with relational and non-relational databases, data modeling, and query optimization. 
• Demonstrated expertise in automated testing, CI/CD, and observability.
• High-Velocity ownership - candidates should thrive in high-ownership, builder-first environments where shipping daily and owning outcomes are fundamental to the role.
• Demonstrated ability to break work into small, incremental deliveries and maintain strong delivery flow. You have a track record of decomposing complex work into small, safely mergeable increments and shipping software solutions to solve customer pain continuously. You can describe your approach to scope deconstruction and provide concrete examples.

Preferred

• Experience shipping ML-Ops powered systems in production (model serving, monitoring, retraining pipelines).
• Experience with distributed data technologies (e.g., Parquet, Athena, or similar query engines).
• Experience making and documenting architectural decisions autonomously (ADRs or equivalent lightweight decision records).

Pendo Description:

Pendo was founded in 2013 by former product managers, who combined their heads and hearts to build something they wanted but never had as product managers -- a simple way to understand and attack what truly drives product success.  Our mission is to improve society's experience with software.

Come join one of the fastest-growing startups, supported by best-in-class institutions like Battery Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Spark Capital and Meritech. You will gain experience in a diverse and exciting set of technologies and clients and have a real impact on Pendo's future. Our culture is passionate, dynamic, and fun.

EEOC

We are an equal opportunity employer and believe having diverse teams where everyone brings their whole self to Pendo is key to our success. We welcome all people of different backgrounds, experiences, abilities and perspectives.

Accessibility

Pendo is committed to working with, and providing access and reasonable accommodation to, applicants with mental and/or physical disabilities. If you think you may require an accommodation for any part of the recruitment process, please send a request to: accommodation@pendo.io. All requests for accommodations are treated discreetly and confidentially, as practical and permitted by law.

Compensation

Our salary ranges are based on paying competitively for our size and industry, and are one part of many compensation, benefits and other reward opportunities we provide.

Individual pay rate decisions, including offers made within and over the expected salary range, are based on a number of factors, including qualifications for the role, experience level, skillset, and balancing internal equity relative to peers at the company.