Staff Backend Engineer

Join to apply for the Staff Backend Engineer role at Vapi. About Vapi Vapi is building the future of voice-native applications. Our platform equips companies with everything they need—telephony, real‑time streaming, deterministic fallbacks, HIPAA/SOC2 compliance, and an AI testing suite—to launch production‑grade voice agents fast. In just 18 months, more than 150,000 developers have signed up, with over 1,000 new developers joining every day. Our mission is to make voice humanity’s default interface again by capturing nuance, emotion, and context that text alone misses. Try it now The Role The Senior Backend Engineer will own features end-to-end from customer requests to their deployment, building on a modular API-first architecture, working within real-time low-latency constraints. You’ll also be a foundational part of how we build the culture at Vapi. What You'll Do Own and deliver entire features and projects Ship a pre-scoped feature within the first 7 days Ship a feature independently within the first 30 days Ship optimizations and refactors Ship a pre-scoped optimization or refactor within the first 14 days Ex. improve the latency of a component of the speech-to-speech pipeline Ship an optimization independently within the first 30 days Ex. refactor a tool-calling mechanism to make it more deterministic Talk to customers Receive a request from Support team and ship the fix within the first 14 days Pick up customer threads unprompted, investigate and solve within the first 14 days Build things that delight customers Delight a customer within the first 30 days (e.g., call analytics endpoint) Who You Are Experience with TypeScript + Node or similar backend framework Communication: You can clearly articulate what you’re thinking and feeling Cracked-ness: You’re more cracked than the most cracked person on the team Startup Ready: You have a reason to be here and can make sacrifices for something uncertain Founder Juice: New ideas come from you, you build it yourself or annoy everyone until it’s done ;) Previous Founding/Senior/Staff/Principal Engineer 1+ years of experience at a company 5+ years experience in Full-Stack / Backend Software Engineering Why Vapi Define the future of human–AI interaction: help pioneer a new era of voice-based AI products that are transforming how people and businesses communicate Own meaningful work at a breakout startup: join early, take real ownership, and have a direct hand in building a category-defining company from the ground up Surround yourself with exceptional people: work alongside a world-class team of engineers, operators, and builders backed by top-tier investors who believe in our mission Accelerate your career in a high-growth environment: grow fast, take on big challenges, and unlock opportunities as we scale one of the most exciting platforms in AI What We Offer Competitive compensation: includes a strong base salary and meaningful equity ownership Comprehensive health coverage: medical, dental, and vision plans Flexible time off: take-what-you-need vacation policy with an emphasis on rest and balance Daily meals: catered lunches and dinners provided for in-office days Lifestyle & wellness stipends: monthly allowances to support rent, transportation, food, fitness, and mental well-being Professional development: annual learning stipends for courses, conferences, and upskilling Team connection: regular offsites, team events, and opportunities to build in-person relationships Seniority level Mid-Senior level Employment type Full-time Job function Engineering and Information Technology Industries Software Development #J-18808-Ljbffr