Backend Engineer
- Location
- San Francisco, CA (Remote) · On-site
- Job type
- Full-time
- Level
- Senior
- Experience
- 5+ years
- Listed
- 23 days ago
Skills & highlights for this role
- backend engineering
- streaming systems
- full-stack development
Also useful
- AI product development
About This Role
We are looking for a senior backend focused but full-stack capable engineer to work on building novel AI-powered product experiences. The ideal candidate will have experience working in close coordination with product, design, and machine learning teams, as well as have a background in building polished consumer applications. This role sits at the center of developing our newest products focused on programmatic, conversationally-driven language learning and will be an instrumental contributor to the future of our company.
What You'll Be Doing
- Building novel AI-driven product experiences and user interfaces on the web
- Full-stack engineering, but focused on creating scalable backend systems.
- Debugging complex streaming issues.
- Owning the entire development cycle of features, from conception to production
- You'll be able to write code very quickly, ship frequently, and make a huge impact on our business by helping us scale our content
What We're Looking for
- 5+ years of industry experience working as a Backend Engineer, preferably in a fast-paced startup environment
- bonus: worked on an app that has been used by 1M users
- Excellent problem-solving and communication skills, and the ability to work independently or as part of a team
- Coach and mentor other engineers
- Strong product sense: ability to think broadly/cross-functionally about product experiences
About US
Our mission is to reinvent the way people learn, starting with language.
Learning a language can change a life by opening doors to new cultures, careers, and communities. Two billion people around the world are actively trying to learn a language, but the best way to learn (one-on-one tutoring) is hard to access at scale and hasn’t been meaningfully improved in decades. Speak is building a human-level, AI-powered tutor in your pocket: a conversation-first experience that lets learners actually speak, get instant feedback, and progress through carefully designed lessons. The result is a complete path from beginner to confident speaker across multiple languages.
Speak first launched in South Korea in 2019, where Speak has now become the number one language learning app, and we now serve learners across many markets and 15+ languages. Speak is one of the world’s leading AI companies, with over $150m raised in venture investment from OpenAI, Accel, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, and more, with a distributed team across San Francisco, Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei, and Ljubljana.
Why Work at Speak
- Join a fantastic, tight-knit team at the right time: we're growing very quickly, we've most recently raised our Series C from some of the top investors in the valley, and we've achieved product-market fit in our initial markets. You'd join at a magical time when a single person could significantly change the course of the company.
- Do your life's work with people you’ll love working with: we care strongly about our craft and want every person at Speak to feel like they're growing every day. We believe in the idea that working with people you both enjoy and have respect for makes everything better. We hire thoughtfully and only work with people we admire deeply.
- Global in nature: We're live in over 40 countries and launching in a number of new markets soon. We have dedicated offices in San Francisco, Ljubljana, Seoul, Tokyo, and Taipei, and you’ll have the opportunity to talk to users in each of these regions on a regular basis as well as travel.
- Impact people's lives in a major way: Learning a language is one of the single most life-changing skills one can learn, and right now 99% of people never achieve their goal because the process is broken. We’re helping millions of people achieve their goals and improve their lives.
Equal opportunity and legal notices
Speak does not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.
From Speak's careers page, first listed on Rolev.ai on October 17, 2026. Rolev.ai is not the employer.
How Rolev.ai helps with this application
Rolev.ai is a job search and application tool for US job seekers. For this Backend Engineer role at Speak, it shows how your resume fits, tailors your resume to the posting, and prepares the application for you to review.
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Common questions
Where is the Backend Engineer job at Speak located?
Yes, this Backend Engineer opening at Speak is listed as San Francisco, CA (Remote) (On-site). Always check Speak's application page for specific state eligibility or relocation policies.
What qualifications are required for Backend Engineer at Speak?
For the Backend Engineer role, Speak highlights 5+ years of relevant experience; experience with backend engineering, streaming systems, full-stack development. Rolev.ai can score your existing resume against these requirements and show any skill gaps before you apply.
How do I apply for the Backend Engineer position at Speak?
This listing links directly to Speak's Ashby application page. You can apply directly on Speak's site, or use Rolev.ai to check your resume fit, generate a zero-hallucination tailored resume and cover letter for this posting, and autofill the Ashby application form in 1 click with the Rolev.ai Chrome extension. You always review the form and press Submit yourself.