Software Engineer – Backend / Full Stack

At Driver, we’re building systems that turn source code into human language. Our core technology, the Driver Transpiler, blends traditional compiler elements with LLM content generation to generate exhaustive, structured documentation of software. As a transpiler engineer, you will help build the foundations of this system.

We’re an early-stage startup backed by Y Combinator and Google Ventures that combines first principles technical approaches and applied LLM expertise to tackle context engineering at scale. Driver builds the context layer for employees and AI agents alike to use in developing software.

Driver is an early-stage but fast-growing startup. As such, we take advantage of what startups can excel at: delivery speed, flexibility, and enjoying working with a small, close-knit team.

Organizational and engineering values at Driver include first-principles thinking, correctness by construction, writing things down, experimentation and iteration, pragmatism, a commitment to effective communication and transparency, autonomy, and ambition.

About the Role

Our core innovation, the Driver Transpiler, treats software explanation as a compilation problem. Instead of emitting machine code, it emits human language.

The transpiler generates human language content at large volumes and highly variable levels of abstraction and requires significant asynchronous task orchestration due to the high volume of highly constrained LLM inference calls to external APIs.

Major established components of our backend today include the data model to support the compiler’s content generation and coordination with codebase assets in version control system (VCS) providers like GitHub, containerized deployment in a distributed cloud service, and implementation of an internal API for the frontend web application.

As part of a bigger trend of polished enterprise readiness, major components we’re building now include support for enterprise role-based access control (RBAC), private single tenant/on-prem deployments, and large-scale model context protocol (MCP) services. Remote MCP services, as a primary way of consuming the output of our transpiler, are growing rapidly and are an incredibly important part of the business going forward.

Major important cross-functional interactions include collaborating with the frontend team on the internal API interface between our backend and frontend, coordinating with the transpiler team, and coordinating with the DevOps and infrastructure team.

This is a foundational role: we are growing quickly and need to establish backend foundations and architecture that will scale and build cross-functional operations. You’ll collaborate closely with our CTO and engineering leadership.

Key Responsibilities

• Core backend work:
  • Contribute to building an efficient and scalable backend data model.
  • Contribute to the development of our RBAC capabilities.
  • Build and maintain critical backend integrations (e.g., VCS providers).
  • Build and maintain the backend web server.
  • Design, build, and maintain internal APIs for our web application.
  • Build and maintain backend APIs for our Model Context Protocol (MCP) products.
  • Make decisions and build foundations that scale.
• Interface with the transpiler team on:
  • Efficient data model for transpiler content.
  • Asynchronous and distributed implementation for transpiler task orchestration.
• Interface with the frontend team on:
  • Co-design the internal API for the FE and important interface contracts.
  • The best way to model data communicated between BE and FE.
• Interface with the DevOps/Infrastructure team on:
  • Distributed task orchestration implementation.
  • Container and distributed job implementation.
• Communicate effectively with team members and across key team interfaces.

Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.

Experience: Minimum 3 — 5 years as a backend engineer.

Required Technical Skills

• Experience building multiple systems as a backend engineer.
• Proficient in Python and JavaScript/TypeScript.
• Strong experience with asynchronous programming paradigms.
• Experience with Python backend frameworks.
• Experience building monitoring, logging, and testing in larger backend systems.
• Experience collaborating with frontend engineers building web applications.
• Comfortable and experienced in data model design and PostgreSQL.
• Comfortable and experienced with AWS services and best practices.

Preferred and Nice-to-Have Technical Skills

• Experience modeling data, validating data, and implementing transformations on data in software development using custom data structures and tools like Pydantic.
• Experience with containerization and container orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Experience building and maintaining REST APIs at scale.
• Experience with task orchestration and job queue technologies like
• Experience with identity access management (IdM) systems and integrations.
• Experience with statically typed and compiled backend/systems programming languages like Go and Rust.
• Familiarity with LLM model APIs and agent toolchains.

You’ll work on technology at the intersection of language theory, compiler design, and generative AI, building systems that expand how both humans and machines understand code.

You’ll also have an outsized impact: this is a core product role in a fast-growing company, where the things you build will directly shape how engineers and AI collaborate in the next decade.

• Competitive Compensation Packages - Cash & Equity
• Flexible Work Culture
• Unlimited Time Off + 12 Paid Company Holidays
• Insurance - Health, Dental, & Vision
• Life Insurance & FSA Accounts
• 401(k) Retirement Accounts - Traditional, Roth, or Both
• Quarterly Team Offsites
  

Driver is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.