The Role
SDVI’s backend engineers build the systems at the core of SDVI Rally. That starts with the distributed, microservice-based platform that processes hundreds of thousands of hours of video content every month. It also includes products built on Rally itself to solve use cases many customers share, and a more data-driven next generation of Rally.
This role is for someone early in their career, joining a team that works AI-first. You’ll help build the agent-driven tooling and process we use to create reusable Rally supply chains that solve common customer use cases, and push how much of that work AI agents can take on. You’ll work with senior engineers, take well-defined pieces of work from design to production, and grow toward owning part of that system yourself.
What You’ll Work On
- Build and maintain python backend services with guidance from senior engineers
- Help build the agent-driven tooling, pipelines, and checks we use to create reusable Rally supply chains
- Work with AI coding agents every day, and help the team find where agents can take on more of the work and where a person still needs to decide
- Write and optimize database queries and REST APIs
- Establish trust in your work with effective development-loop tests
- Take part in code reviews, and ask questions to learn the codebase and the technologies behind it
- Work with customers and customer-facing teams to understand the use cases behind your work
- Take part in design discussions, and apply the feedback you get on your own designs
What Success Looks Like
- First 90 days. You’ve shipped production changes with guidance, use AI agents as a normal part of how you deliver, can find your way around the code you work in, and take part in code reviews.
- First year. You own part of the tooling we use to create reusable supply chains, deliver changes from design to production with little guidance, and have helped change how the team uses AI to ship.
What You’ll Bring
- Curiosity about new systems and technologies, and the habit of reading the docs and code before asking, then asking good questions
- Clear, accurate communication about your work, and honesty about what you don’t know yet
- Some experience building backend software in a mainstream server-side language, from work, internships, or your own projects. We mostly use Python, but value being able to read and understand many languages over fluency in any one. If your strongest language is something else, you should be able to read Python and understand it thoroughly.
- A working understanding of REST APIs and relational databases
- Experience writing automated tests for your own code
- Hands-on experience building software with AI coding agents, interest in pushing how far they can go, and the habit of checking what they produce
Nice to Have
- Experience with FastAPI, Flask, SQLAlchemy, or PostgreSQL
- Experience with Docker and containerized deployments
- Experience with a mainstream cloud platform, such as AWS, GCP, or Azure
- Exposure to distributed systems or data pipelines
- Familiarity with professional media formats, such as codecs, container formats, and metadata, and how media supply chains use them
If you don’t meet every point above, we’d still like to hear from you.
How We Work
- We’re small and distributed. Most of our collaboration happens over Slack and Zoom, across time zones. You’ll own what you build, and you’ll work closely with people outside your immediate team.
- Engineers stay close to customers. You’ll hear directly from the people using what you build. When something goes wrong in production, the team that owns the code helps fix it.
- We dig for root causes. When something breaks, we find out why instead of patching the symptom and moving on.
- We ship, then refine. We work in short sprints and improve things over time instead of waiting for a perfect first version.
How We Use AI
AI coding agents are part of how we work every day, and we invest in getting good at using them. We’re also careful with them, because customers run their content operations on Rally. We’re tracking industry trends and innovations, but using our day-to-day experiences to separate signal from noise.
Our engineers are still responsible for the code they ship. We still expect them to explain and defend its architecture and intent, even as more is built with an agent’s help. We judge work by its quality, not its quantity.
This role is not a fit for someone who would rather not use AI tools, or who is used to shipping generated changes they couldn’t explain. It probably is a fit for someone who knows where these tools go wrong and how to achieve quality with speed.
Logistics
- This is a remote role, open to candidates across the United States
- Occasional travel may be required, but is not core to this role
- Interview process: introductory call, AI proficiency interview, team technical interview, interview project, interview project presentation, and founders interview
Compensation and Benefits
Salary range $90,000 to $145,000
Salary range represents the expected range for this position and is based on a number of factors, including location, and will vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Pay ranges are US-applicable only.