The Software Engineer will enhance a live app, collaborating with teams to build user-facing features and improve functionality. Strong experience with backend systems and a proactive approach is essential.
About Us
Alpha is a product studio focused on the intersection of AI and consumer social – backed by a16z and many of the top investors in the world. Our goal is to create social products that we use, that our friends use, and that have the potential to reach billions of people.
Clubhouse was our first app, and we’ve been quietly growing that while building our next set of products. We have years of runway, millions of users, and find ourselves at a very interesting time, where AI is making entirely new things possible with voice.
If you are a talented builder who’s interested in joining us, we’d love to talk.
The Role
We’re hiring an early to mid-level Senior Backend Engineer for our Core Team that focuses on the live Clubhouse app in production today. This team is responsible for rapid product explorations, overall quality and usage of the app, and monetization features for Clubhouse Plus users.
You’ll work in a highly collaborative environment with our founders, product, design, and data science to:
- Solve dynamic set of user problems
- Ship new product launches at speedImprove our monetization features and app quality
- Iteratively improve a legacy codebase while keeping an eye on long-term maintainability
We are a remote-friendly company — with our headquarters in San Francisco and a strong commitment to ensuring people can do great work here and thrive without having to live near an office. This role is open to candidates across the U.S.
Who you are
- You are experienced and curious. You have 4–5 years of backend development experience with a strong foundation in languages like Python or Java, and experience with relational and/or NoSQL databases (PostgreSQL, DynamoDB). You’re eager to deepen your technical craft and broaden your systems thinking.
- You have a product mindset. You connect backend work to measurable business impact. You think about how experiments tie to user growth and engagement, and you balance technical decisions with product outcomes.
- You move quickly and iterate. You can scope and deliver MVPs to learn early, gather data, and iterate. You know how to balance speed and reliability so experiment results are trustworthy.
- You work well cross-functionally. You enjoy partnering closely with Product Managers, Designers, and Data Scientists to shape hypotheses and act on results. You communicate tradeoffs clearly and can reframe constraints as opportunities.
- You’re collaborative and low ego. You evolve your thinking based on new data, seek the best solution regardless of ownership, and contribute to a positive, inclusive team culture.
What you will do
- Build and ship experiments that improve discovery, ranking, and personalization for millions of users. These systems are mission critical to our overall long-term success.
- Evolve our backend systems — balancing quick iteration with code health and scalability.
- Collaborate closely with engineers, PMs, designers, and data scientists to shape and deliver high-impact features.
- Instrument and analyze experiments to inform the next iteration.
- Advocate for simplicity — making thoughtful tradeoffs to ensure solutions are maintainable and measurable.
- Create something meaningful. Social products allow people to connect in ways that were never before possible. At Clubhouse, you’ll be figuring out something entirely new for the world—a positive product that brings people’s voices together to help everyone have a life filled with great friendships.
What you can expect
As a member of our team, you can choose to work in person – at our beautiful, creative HQ in San Francisco – or fully remote. You can expect competitive base pay (currently $227,000 - $253,000 for this role), meaningful ownership in the company, great benefits, and constant advancement opportunities.
More importantly, we will invest deeply in your development and work every day to ensure it is the best professional experience of your life.
***
Our company is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate in hiring or make any employment decision based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at [email protected].
Top Skills
DynamoDB
Java
Postgres
Python
Clubhouse San Francisco, California, USA Office
San Francisco, CA, United States
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