Software Engineer - Backend

About Luma AI Luma's mission is to build multimodal AI to expand human imagination and capabilities. We believe that multimodality is critical for intelligence. To go beyond language models and build more aware, capable, and useful systems, the next step function change will come from vision. So, we are working on training and scaling up multimodal foundation models for systems that can see and understand, show and explain, and eventually interact with our world to effect change. Where You Come In We are looking for versatile and product-minded Backend Engineers to build the core systems that power Luma’s generative AI products, including Dream Machine. This isn't a siloed role; you'll be a generalist working across the entire product backend, from designing and shipping high-traffic APIs to developing the infrastructure for our agentic systems and ensuring our services are scalable and reliable for millions of users. The ideal candidate is a proactive, adaptable engineer who thrives in a fast-paced startup environment, takes initiative, and demonstrates strong product instincts. What You'll Do Design, build, and maintain scalable backend systems and high-traffic REST APIs. Collaborate closely with product, design, research, and front-end teams to translate user needs and cutting-edge research into elegant, scalable backend solutions. Work across a wide range of backend domains, including API development, asynchronous job queuing, infrastructure management, billing systems, and moderation stacks. Take ownership of our AI agent stack, building and scaling the backend systems for agentic workflows and capabilities. Work with researchers to integrate advanced video capabilities into our core offerings. Work with our research team to rapidly prototype, build, and optimize inference pipelines for state-of-the-art ML models. Contribute to our technical roadmap and product strategy, fostering an inclusive culture that values diverse perspectives. Who You Are You have 8+ years of experience as a software engineer, with a proven record of shipping impactful, user-focused products. You have strong proficiency in a backend language like Python or Go, with a willingness to learn across the stack. Experience designing and shipping state-of-the-art and high-traffic REST APIs. You have hands-on experience with containerization and orchestration technologies like Docker and Kubernetes. You possess a strong understanding of security, authentication, and best practices for designing user-facing APIs. You are a generalist who enjoys hopping from one challenge to the next and is comfortable working on multiple parts of the stack. You have experience working in fast-paced startup environments, either as a founder or an early-stage engineer, and thrive in the face of ambiguity. What Sets You Apart (Bonus Points) AI Agentic Systems: Experience building or deploying agentic systems, co-pilot style features, or other complex LLM-powered workflows. Media-Heavy Applications: A background building backend systems for creative tools or media-rich apps (video, images, audio). Full Stack with Frontend Familiarity: Exposure to or experience with frontend development (TypeScript, React).