Why This Job is Featured on The SaaS Jobs
This Senior or Staff Backend Engineer role sits at a SaaS intersection that is becoming increasingly central: enterprise software infused with applied AI. The product focus on an AI workspace platform and autonomous agents implies real-world constraints around security, privacy, and deployment that are typical when SaaS moves from prototype to trusted system of record for larger customers.
For a long-term SaaS career, the work maps to durable backend competencies that remain valuable across categories, from developer platforms to productivity tools. Building agentic and RAG-style applications against sensitive enterprise data develops judgment around reliability, performance, and operational safeguards, not just model integration. The emphasis on productionizing state of the art techniques also reflects a common SaaS pattern where research advances must be translated into maintainable services with clear failure modes.
This is best suited to engineers who enjoy owning hard backend problems end to end, including making pragmatic trade-offs when standard libraries or tooling cannot be used. It will fit someone comfortable collaborating across disciplines, particularly with researchers, and who prefers environments where deployment constraints and customer trust shape technical decisions.
The section above is editorial commentary from The SaaS Jobs, provided to help SaaS professionals understand the role in a broader industry context.
Job Description
Who are we?
Our mission is to scale intelligence to serve humanity. We’re training and deploying frontier models for developers and enterprises who are building AI systems to power magical experiences like content generation, semantic search, RAG, and agents. We believe that our work is instrumental to the widespread adoption of AI.
We obsess over what we build. Each one of us is responsible for contributing to increasing the capabilities of our models and the value they drive for our customers. We like to work hard and move fast to do what’s best for our customers.
Cohere is a team of researchers, engineers, designers, and more, who are passionate about their craft. Each person is one of the best in the world at what they do. We believe that a diverse range of perspectives is a requirement for building great products.
Join us on our mission and shape the future!
About North:
North is Cohere's cutting-edge AI workspace platform, designed to revolutionize the way enterprises utilize AI. It offers a secure and customizable environment, allowing companies to deploy AI while maintaining control over sensitive data. North integrates seamlessly with existing workflows, providing a trusted platform that connects AI agents with workplace tools and applications.
As a Senior/Staff Backend Engineer, you will:
Build and ship features for North, our AI workspace platform
Develop autonomous agents that talk to sensitive enterprise data
Write and ship minimal code that runs in low-resource environments, and has highly stringent deployment mechanisms
As security and privacy are paramount, you will sometimes need to re-invent the wheel, and won’t be able to use the most popular libraries or tooling
Collaborate with researchers to productionize state-of-the-art models and techniques
You may be a good fit if:
Have shipped (lots of) Python in production
You have built and deployed extremely performant client-side or server-side RAG/agentic applications to millions of users
You have strong coding abilities and are comfortable working across the stack. You’re able to read and understand, and even fix issues outside of the main code base
You’ve worked in both large enterprises and startups
You excel in fast-paced environments and can execute while priorities and objectives are a moving target
If some of the above doesn’t line up perfectly with your experience, we still encourage you to apply!
We value and celebrate diversity and strive to create an inclusive work environment for all. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and are committed to providing equal opportunities. Should you require any accommodations during the recruitment process, please submit an Accommodations Request Form, and we will work together to meet your needs.
Full-Time Employees at Cohere enjoy these Perks:
🤝 An open and inclusive culture and work environment
🧑💻 Work closely with a team on the cutting edge of AI research
🍽 Weekly lunch stipend, in-office lunches & snacks
🦷 Full health and dental benefits, including a separate budget to take care of your mental health
🐣 100% Parental Leave top-up for up to 6 months
🎨 Personal enrichment benefits towards arts and culture, fitness and well-being, quality time, and workspace improvement
🏙 Remote-flexible, offices in Toronto, New York, San Francisco, London and Paris, as well as a co-working stipend
✈️ 6 weeks of vacation (30 working days!)
