Software Engineer, Backend (Partner 16, Partner 18)

Founded in Silicon Valley in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz (aka a16z) is a venture capital firm that backs bold entrepreneurs building the future through technology. We are stage agnostic. We invest in seed to venture to growth-stage technology companies, across AI, bio + healthcare, consumer, crypto, enterprise, fintech, games, and companies building toward American dynamism. a16z has $100B+ under management across multiple funds.

We’ve established a team that is defined by respect for the entrepreneur and the company-building process; we know what it’s like to be in the founder’s shoes. We’ve invested in companies like Anduril, Airbnb, Coinbase, Cursor, Databricks, Deel, Figma, GitHub, Roblox, SpaceX, and Stripe. Our team is at the forefront of new technology, helping founders and their companies impact and change the world.

The Role

You will join a fully functional team of experienced individual contributors building internal software tools for the firm’s investing and operations teams. You are a detail-oriented backend engineer with a strong interest in developing feature-rich, data-driven applications. Your work will focus on identifying, acquiring, and normalizing alternative data sources, and on designing and implementing secure, scalable backend systems that power our internal products.

The Applied Software Group operates in the mode of an internal startup. We own a tight feedback loop with our users and take on requests from all corners of the firm. This role offers meaningful ownership, frequent opportunities to ship, and close collaboration with experienced engineers who will support your growth and development.

This role requires an in-office presence 2-3 days a week in our San Francisco, CA office.

To join our team, you should be excited to:

• Build and maintain backend services that support internal data products and applications
• Work closely with investing and operations teams to understand workflows and translate requirements into reliable software solutions
• Contribute to the design and implementation of new features and systems, with guidance from more experienced engineers as needed
• Ship new data products iteratively, incorporating user feedback to continuously improve functionality and performance
• Take ownership of assigned services or projects, from development through production support
• Write clear, well-structured, and maintainable code
• Collaborate positively with teammates and contribute to an inclusive, supportive engineering culture
• Stay curious about new tools, technologies, and approaches relevant to backend and data systems

Minimum Qualifications

• 3+ years of professional software engineering experience
• Strong proficiency in Python 3 (or another backend language) and willingness to learn new technologies
• Experience deploying production services on at least one major cloud platform (GCP, AWS, or Azure)
• Experience working with production SQL and NoSQL databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL, Elasticsearch)
• Experience building and deploying containerized services; familiarity with Kubernetes is a plus
• Experience working in environments that value rapid iteration, code quality, and operational excellence
• Strong problem-solving skills and solid technical fundamentals
• Low ego, high empathy, and the capacity to collaborate effectively with diverse teams

This role is open at the Software Engineer (Partner 16) and Senior Software Engineer (Partner 18) levels. The anticipated salary range for this role is between:

• Software Engineer (Partner 16): $269,000 - $314,000
• Senior Software Engineer (Partner 18): $301,000 - $352,000

Final compensation will be determined based on a candidate's overall experience, technical depth, and interview performance.

This role is eligible to participate in the a16z Carry program and various discretionary bonus programs as well as benefit and perquisite plans including health, dental, vision, disability, life insurance, 401K plan, vacation, and sick leave.