Senior Software Engineer - Palo Alto - Mithril

Description

Mithril is actively seeking talented candidates at the Senior to Principal level, with leveling determined based on experience and demonstrated expertise. We welcome individuals who bring deep technical knowledge, strategic thinking, and a track record of impact, and we tailor roles to align with each candidate's unique strengths and career trajectory.

About Mithril

At Mithril, we are transforming the way AI companies access compute power. Our mission is to orchestrate the world's compute capacity, making it easier to use and optimized for AI workloads. We're building a new type of public cloud—one designed specifically for AI, where accessing high-performance compute is as simple and reliable as flipping a switch.

Spun out of a Stanford PhD lab just over a year ago, Mithril has already gained the backing of top-tier investors like Sequoia, Lightspeed, Jeff Dean, Eric Schmidt, and others. With $80M in funding, we've secured customers and are generating revenue.

Today's machine learning infrastructure is overly complex. Engineers are forced to make tough decisions about hardware, when their focus should be on solving big problems and driving innovation. Our Omnicloud Platform changes that. By abstracting away hardware management and providing seamless access to compute resources, we enable engineers to focus on what really matters—building transformative AI solutions.

We're not just making compute accessible; we're making it flexible, scalable, and tailored for the unique demands of AI. Our infrastructure marketplace brings the power of state-of-the-art hardware without the friction, allowing companies to innovate faster and more efficiently.

Working at Mithril

As an engineer at Mithril, you'll be at the forefront of building the software that powers the future of AI. Your role is critical—not just in scaling our systems, but in ensuring they are reliable and performant at every level. In an era where AI workloads are becoming larger and more complex, building scalable and efficient backend systems is the foundation of everything we do.

Our platform supports cutting-edge AI workloads, managing vast amounts of data and operating in high-performance, multi-tenant environments. You'll be tasked with designing and implementing backend services that power our Omnicloud Platform, optimizing for performance, scalability, and flexibility to support AI practitioners and researchers.

If you're motivated by the challenge of building robust software and thrive in a fast-paced, high-impact environment, Mithril is the place for you. Here, autonomy and ownership are paramount. You'll have the freedom to make significant decisions, backed by a collaborative and inclusive team. Our flat structure ensures your ideas don't get lost in hierarchy—every engineer shapes both the product and the company's direction.

At Mithril, we demand precision, clear communication, and relentless innovation in how we approach product engineering, system architecture and scalability. If you're passionate about pushing boundaries and building the future of AI for practitioners and recent entrants alike, join us and be a part of something transformative.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with product managers, designers, and stakeholders to deeply understand customer needs and project requirements.
• Ensure documentation is comprehensive, clear, and accessible to facilitate collaboration among team members and future maintenance.
• Leverage your backend development skills to translate technical designs into robust, scalable, and secure web applications.
• Write clean, efficient, and maintainable code while adhering to coding standards and best practices.
• Conduct thorough testing, including unit testing, integration testing, and end-to-end testing, to ensure the quality and reliability of the applications.
• Coordinate with Infrastructure teams to deploy applications, monitor system performance, and implement optimizations as needed.
• Provide ongoing support and maintenance for deployed applications, including troubleshooting, bug fixes, and feature enhancements.

Requirements

• At least six years of practical experience
• Proficient with Python in a professional capacity
• Thrives on taking ownership and developing critical components of products and platforms
• Possess strong problem-solving skills and excel at iterating based on feedback
• Enthusiastic about tackling complex technical challenges
• Great intuition for architecture and design in a microservice architecture
• Ability to identify potential security threats and mitigation strategies
• Prescience for relational database schema design

Nice to have

• Proficiency in building developer tools
• Familiarity with infrastructure as code (IAC) tools like Terraform
• Skill in designing robust Rest APIs
• Knowledge of optimizing website performance
• Expertise in creating and analyzing metrics to aid in data-driven business decisions
• Health, dental, and vision coverage for you and your dependents
• 401k Plan with 4% company match
• 21 days of PTO & 14 company holidays; including 2 floating holidays

Salary Range Information

In consideration of market analysis and various pertinent factors, the remuneration bracket for this role is set between $170,000 and $230,000. Nevertheless, adjustments beyond this range could be warranted for candidates whose qualifications substantially deviate from those delineated in the job description.

In-Office requirement

At Mithril, we take our work extremely seriously, though not always ourselves. We recognize that we are striving to achieve something substantial—an all-too-rare and elusive counterfactual contribution. Our work is not easy, so we seek out any lever that can accelerate our progress and increase the likelihood of realizing our full ambitions. Working collaboratively in person is one such lever.

Our headquarters is in Palo Alto (next to Caltrain on University Ave.), and we recently opened a new office in San Francisco (Financial District/SoMa) for our teammates based there. We expect team members to primarily work from their local office (Palo Alto or San Francisco), with everyone gathering at HQ one day a week while our team remains small and cross-team collaboration is critical.

This approach is built on trust. We take our mission seriously and are committed to fostering an environment where you can make impactful decisions and drive success. We also understand that life can present challenges, and if extenuating circumstances arise, we're here to support you.

Ultimately, we believe this guidance helps us be as effective as possible while maintaining the spirit of teamwork and flexibility.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Mithril maintains a strict commitment to Equal Opportunity employment practices. All applicants are evaluated without regard to race, color, religion, creed, national origin, age, sex, gender, marital status, sexual orientation and identity, genetic information, veteran status, citizenship, or any other factors prohibited by local, state, or federal law.

We emphasize that candidates need not fulfill every expectation listed to be eligible for this position. Our objective is to cultivate a diverse team encompassing a spectrum of backgrounds, experiences, and skill sets.