Backend Engineer (Founding Role)

Company Description

Upriver is building the first Autonomous Data Engineer: AI teammate that understands your data platform and automates data engineering workflows end-to-end. Founded by Talpiot alumni and backed by leading data and AI investors, we’ve recently closed our seed round, are scaling fast, and already work with paying customers like Unity and Bright Data.

We’re looking for a Backend Engineer to build the core of our platform. This is a high-ownership role in an early-stage company, working directly with the founders and some of the strongest engineering talent in the market.

What You’ll Do

• Build and own backend systems that power Upriver’s AI agents and autonomous workflows.
• Work hands-on with cutting-edge agent architectures and applied AI, helping invent how these systems are built and used in production.
• Design scalable, reliable services for real customers, from data ingestion to orchestration and APIs.
• Deliver real customer value end-to-end: take features from idea to production, see them used by customers, and iterate based on real-world impact.

What We’re Looking For

• Strong backend engineering experience
• Experience building production systems, and data-heavy services.
• Comfortable operating independently and taking full ownership.
• Product-minded, pragmatic, and excited about building from zero.

Why Upriver

• Define a new category: Be part of a team figuring out how AI agents actually work inside real data platforms, and build a category leader product.
• High ownership, high trust: You’ll make real architectural and product decisions early on.
• Top-tier team: Work with exceptional engineers at a very high bar.
• Join at the inflection point: Strong early traction, a fresh seed round, and the opportunity to grow rapidly with the company as it scales.