Location
Remote, but 9am - 3pm PST overlap with PST hours is required.
About Mem
Mem is the AI Notes App trusted by entrepreneurs, executives, creatives, and academics as their second brain. We make it effortlessly simple to capture, organize, and recall information exactly when you need it.
We're focused on building the first true "AI Chief of Staff" - a tool that not only remembers information but proactively helps you leverage it, working alongside you as a true collaborator. This ranges from real-time co-editing to background processing that surfaces insights when you need them.
The Role
We're seeking a product-minded Backend Engineer who loves to invent, build, and ship new user experiences. You'll be leveraging both your engineering and product design expertise to craft the first true "AI Chief of Staff" to augment human intelligence.
We value raw intelligence, bias toward action, and strong product sense. We work in dynamic teams that change every two weeks, shipping complete features in short cycles. Engineers at Mem have significant influence on product direction, not just implementation.
We're looking for collaborative, product-minded engineers who can thrive in a startup environment, build from 0→1, and care deeply about crafting exceptional user experiences.
What you'll do
- Report directly to our CEO and work closely with our Founding Engineer, Lead UX Designer, and CEO to architect and build product experiences that integrate state-of-the-art artificial intelligence to enable intelligence in our product.
- Design and optimize PostgreSQL schemas that power high-performance information retrieval
- Build asynchronous processing pipelines that extract structure from unstructured note content
- Create intelligent data models that enable semantic search and context-aware recommendations
- Develop systems that automatically organize information without requiring user maintenance
- Implement scalable backend services that handle real-time and background processing
- Integrate language models to transform and enhance user content
- Collaborate with the team to define our product roadmap and technical architecture
Example Challenge: Building the Knowledge Graph
Imagine designing a system that automatically builds a knowledge graph from users' unstructured notes. You'll need to:
- Create an asynchronous pipeline that processes notes as they're created or modified
- Use language models to extract entities (people, companies, projects) and their relationships
- Design a database schema that efficiently stores this graph structure while maintaining query performance
- Build APIs that allow the frontend to leverage this structure for features like auto-linking and proactive surfacing
- Ensure the system scales to handle millions of notes while maintaining performance
This requires deep database expertise, experience with asynchronous processing, and product thinking to understand how the underlying data model will enable powerful user-facing features.
You may be a good fit if you
- Have prior experience in complex engineering environments.
- Are a self-starter with the ability to work independently and solve complex problems. Prior founder or startup experience is a plus.
- Are open-minded to using state-of-the-art tools.
- Are well-versed in systems thinking.
- Take pride in working on projects from conception to successful completion involving a wide range of systems, processes, and technologies.
- Have a meticulous eye for detail.
- Thrive in ambiguity.
- Enjoy greenfield problems.
- Love making the impossible possible.
Tech
- Django, Python, and OpenAPI
- Postgres and Redis
- Search and data pipelines built with OpenAI, Cohere, Elasticsearch, Pinecone, PubSub, Apache Beam, and Temporal
- TipTap (Prosemirror) Editor with Yjs
- Local-first data synchronization system
- Hosted on the Google Cloud Platform
- CI/CD with GitHub Actions, Docker, Terraform, Google Cloud Run
- Monitoring via Datadog
What we offer
- Interesting and challenging work at the frontier of AI
- Competitive salary and equity
- Work remotely, no commuting to the office
- 21 days paid vacation
- Company-sponsored team retreats, events, and meals
- Comprehensive health benefits, including medical, dental, vision, mental health, and monthly wellness stipend
- M1 Macbook Pro, 4K display, accessories, and a monthly AI stipend to explore new tools
- Comprehensive family benefits, including 16 weeks paid family leave and support for IVF, egg freezing, adoption, and childcare
Learn how we think and work
- Why We Started Mem
- Article by The Verge on how we’re building your own personal Google
- Blog by The OpenAI Startup Fund introducing their first investments
- Deep-dive into the technology behind our similar notes feature