Job Description

## **About Pinnacle**

Pinnacle is a rapidly-growing Seed-stage AI startup revolutionizing how we
work. Our flagship product, Pascal, is an AI performance and career coach that
brings world-class executive coaching to every employee, anytime, anywhere.
Imagine a 24/7 companion who intimately understands your aspirations and team
context, and who offers proactive insights to help you uncover blind spots and
excel day-to-day.

If you’ve ever had questions about how to navigate a difficult colleague,
struggled through a difficult conversation, wished for more feedback, or
wondered why work is so hard, Pinnacle is for you! Join us, and help
everyone—from top-performing ICs to frontline managers to C-suite
executives—unlock their full potential.

We’re trusted by top startups and unicorns to ensure their teams are
performing at the peak of their game. Our Stanford GSB-founded team already
has decades of experience in AI & executive coaching, and we’re backed by eLab
Ventures, Incisive VC, the Sarah Smith Fund, 57blocks, Jolly VC, Embedding VC,
People Tech Partners, StartX, Alchemist Accelerator, and top angels.

## **About the Role**

As our Backend Engineer, you'll be at the intersection of AI and scalable
software architecture, building the foundation that powers personalized career
coaching at scale. You'll work in a fast-paced, fully remote environment where
your code ships quickly and your impact is immediately visible. As an early
team member at our venture-backed startup, you'll have the opportunity to
shape our core infrastructure, work directly with cutting-edge AI technology,
and make decisions that will impact thousands of users. These will be just
some of your key responsibilities:

* Implement scalable backend infrastructure for our AI-powered career coaching chatbot
* Integrate third party systems for data enrichment
* Develop and maintain machine learning pipelines for text generation and model improvements
* Implement efficient data processing and storage solutions using MongoDB
* Create and optimize API endpoints for seamless frontend and AI model interactions
* Ensure high performance, reliability, and low-latency responses in AI-driven interactions
* Collaborate with cross-functional teams including ML researchers, frontend developers, and product managers

## **About You**

_**You should apply if you meet the following qualifications:**_

* **Required:**
* 3-5 years of professional backend development experience
* Expert-level Python programming skills (including experience with pytest)
* Experience with Node.js
* Extensive experience with RESTful API design and implementation
* Understanding of prompt engineering techniques and agent orchestration
* **Preferred** :
* Strong background in MongoDB database design and optimization Experience with containerization (Docker) and cloud deployment strategies (GCP, Heroku)
* Basic knowledge of front-end web development using React
* Expert with microservices architecture
* Experience integrating HRIS or similar data pipelines

_**And if you are someone who has:**_

* A deep passion for the problem space we’re operating in.
* Worked on small teams (and preferably at small companies or startups) where flexibility > process
* Worked iteratively through product requirements, coalescing the undefined to make it defined, working to make the unknowns known, and adjusting to changes discovered along the way
* Learned that you never have all the answers but know how to ask questions, research, and experiment to find them
* Learned that asking for help from the team when you’re stuck is better than struggling through it alone

**Note:** You are free to work remotely (even internationally), but we cannot
sponsor an H1-B visa if you need one.