Senior Backend Software Engineer

Job Description: Senior Backend Software Engineer

Location: US Remote

About Us: 

Friday Harbor is a modern AI mortgage underwriting platform. It helps lenders identify problems in a loan file upfront, resolving potential issues earlier, and assembling clean, complete, and compliant files from the start.  

We’re a Seattle-based startup backed by top-tier investors (Abstract, Mischief, Wischoff, AI2 Incubator, CoFound) and trusted by leading lenders across the country, including several of the top-25 lenders in the country. While our headquarters are in Seattle, our engineering team is fully remote with quarterly off-sites. We offer flexibility and work-life balance while still fostering a collaborative and creative team environment.

Join our team of 5 engineers to build the AI systems that are changing how mortgages get underwritten. You'll work on LLM applications, integrate with third-party mortgage platforms, develop new product features, and optimize performance as we scale. The work spans cutting-edge AI (RAG, agentic workflows) and practical backend engineering (APIs, integrations, data pipelines).

Responsibilities:

• Architect and build scalable backend systems and APIs to support our AI-powered mortgage underwriting platform as we scale to meet rapid customer growth.
• Design and implement integrations with third-party mortgage systems (LOS platforms like Encompass, document providers, credit bureaus) and internal services.
• Build and optimize LLM-powered features using the latest in agentic AI systems and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to improve underwriting accuracy and automation.
• Own greenfield projects from concept to production while also scaling and refining existing systems to handle increasing loan volume.
• Optimize system performance, security, and reliability to maintain seamless operations as we process thousands of loans monthly for enterprise customers.
• Collaborate closely with our team of 5 engineers to define product features, technical architecture, and engineering best practices.
• Shape our technical culture and contribute to product strategy, bringing insights from both customer needs and emerging AI capabilities.

Requirements:

• 4 years building scalable, high-performance backend systems. Expertise in a modern backend language required; must be comfortable working in Python or adapting swiftly.
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related quantitative/technical field.
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to design and implement efficient, maintainable software solutions.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, small team environment.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and rapid iteration. Experience in startups or fast-moving teams is a plus.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience integrating LLMs into production applications or building AI-powered workflows.
• Production experience with SQL databases and familiarity with key-value stores like Redis.
• Experience with cloud platforms, preferably AWS, and containerization technologies like Docker.
• Experience working on financial technology or regulated industry systems.

We offer a competitive cash salary ($170-200k), significant equity compensation, and a complete benefits package. Our compensation strategy is geared towards attracting world-class talent and creating the possibility for significant potential equity upside for our early employees.

Help us scale AI systems that process thousands of loans monthly for lenders across the country.