Senior Software Engineer (Recommendation Engine)

We're the creators of Highrise, which is now featured in the iOS App Store with 50 million users and rapidly growing. We're building bleeding-edge technology that enables both developers and amateurs to create immersive and accessible virtual experiences and directly deploy them to a platform with millions of users.

About the Role

As the first software engineer focusing on building the recommendation engine to power discovery in Highrise, you will be responsible for building brand-new systems to serve content recommendations in the form of experiences, items, users, etc. The project is a blank slate, as the current systems are basic and should be replaced.

This is a 0-to-1 role that will take ownership of the entire system to help our users discover experiences and things they love. You will either design or use existing ML models, integrate them into our backend application code and features, and support them from end to end. You will be a core member of our small and elite backend team, with the opportunity to deliver exceptional impact for the millions of users in Highrise.

The right candidate should be comfortable working alongside the backend team on application development and be ready to take Highrise to the next level. You must have prior experience building similar recommendation engines at scale. We are looking for the right candidate to jump in and quickly build the recommendation systems to deliver results, using either off-the-shelf ML solutions or building the right foundations in-house.

Your impact on our team, product, and world will measure your success. If you value control over your career and you are genuinely excited to see a virtual universe be brought to life through your work, this role will be an extraordinary opportunity for you.

Our Current Backend Technical Stack:

• Async Python (fully typed with dataclasses), GO

• Micro Services, event-based architecture

• REST, FlatBuffers, WebSocket Secure(WSS)

• AWS(EC2, S3, LB)

• MongoDB, ElasticSearch and Redis(cache and queues)

• OpenSearch, Grafana, Kibana and Prometheus

• Kubernetes

• IAC(Terraform, kOps, Helm)

Our Planned Stack Upgrades:

• ML-driven recommendations and search engines.

• AI-powered content generation.

• Expanding user-generated experiences and content.

Here are the skills and qualities we're looking for in our ideal candidate:

• 6+ years of professional experience building backend software at scale.

• Experience launching end-to-end production ML models and similar recommendation systems.

• Fluency in Python and practical experience in applying CICD best practices.

• Experience with designing and evaluating A/B tests for newly launched models.

• Skilled at solving open ambiguous problems.

• Experience and are comfortable working in a high-growth startup environment.

Bonuses

• You have built any side projects or games outside of work or made significant open-source contributions.

• You have experience programming in GO, C#, or Lua.

• You have experience with the Unity Gaming Engine.

• You are a starter who loves to experiment and learn new things.

• You’re highly energetic and feel comfortable leading and pushing your team to succeed.

• You are comfortable taking control of large systems with minimal documentation.

• Ability to rapidly prototype and test new algorithms.

Why work with us

• Impact: Your work will directly affect millions of users around the world.

• Growth: Your growth isn’t capped by a career ladder. Show us you can deliver the impact, and we’ll respond with recognition and reward.

• Culture: High trust, high intensity, low process and bureaucracy. We pride ourselves in being a Silicon Valley startup with a laser focus on the mission, and we’ll happily remove all roadblocks in your path to success.

• Reward: This role offers a highly competitive salary and very generous equity. Our incentives will be directly aligned toward success.