Backend Engineer - AI, Automation & Product Engineering

Urban Ground
Urban Ground

Software Engineering, Product, Data Science

Indianapolis, IN, USA · Panaji, Goa, India

INR 1,400k-1,800k / year + Equity

Posted on Jul 17, 2026

About Us

We are building technology for two businesses.

Nimmi: Nimmi is an AI operating system for residential real estate in Europe. Our AI agents answer calls, qualify rental applicants, schedule viewings and automate leasing and property-management workflows.

Urban Ground: Urban Ground is a Berlin-based residential-rental company operating hundreds of homes in Germany. We use technology and automation to streamline leasing, tenant support, maintenance and operational workflows.

We don't hire engineers into narrowly defined boxes. We hire strong problem solvers and allocate problems based on business priorities and individual strengths.

Depending on company priorities and your strengths, you may work across both businesses.

This Role Is Not for Everyone. If you prefer:

  • detailed specifications,
  • narrowly defined responsibilities,
  • waiting for tickets to be assigned,
  • being told exactly what to do,

this role is probably not a fit.

If you enjoy:

  • solving difficult problems,
  • understanding systems end-to-end,
  • making technical trade-offs,
  • figuring things out independently,
  • taking ownership,

you'll likely thrive here.

How We Work

After the initial onboarding period, you will not be handed detailed specifications or step-by-step instructions.

Instead, you'll often be given a problem statement.

For example:

"Customers are dropping off during onboarding."

"This workflow doesn't scale."

"This integration keeps failing."

"This process is creating operational inefficiencies."

Your job is to:

  • Understand the problem.
  • Investigate and gather information.
  • Come back with multiple possible solutions.
  • Identify the pros and cons of each approach.
  • Recommend a solution.
  • Implement it.
  • Monitor the outcome and iterate.

We are looking for engineers who think like owners, not ticket executors.

What You'll Work On:

  • Backend systems powering our AI products
  • APIs and integrations
  • Workflow orchestration and automation
  • Voice-agent tooling and infrastructure
  • L1 and L2 support automation
  • Production debugging, observability and monitoring
  • Enterprise pilot implementations
  • Internal tools and automation
  • Reports, dashboards and workflow automation
  • Building systems that scale across customers and countries

What We're Looking For

  • 2–4 years of software engineering experience.
  • Strong computer science fundamentals.
  • Strong understanding of data structures and algorithms.
  • Strong understanding of software design principles and design patterns.
  • Strong understanding of APIs, databases and distributed systems.
  • Experience building production systems.
  • Strong debugging and problem-solving ability.
  • Experience with Git and code reviews.
  • Ability to own features from design to production.
  • Comfortable operating in ambiguity.
  • Ability to break ambiguous problems into actionable steps.
  • Ability to think about trade-offs and communicate recommendations.
  • High agency and strong sense of ownership.
  • Willingness to relocate to Goa for the first six months.

Technical Requirements

You should be proficient in at least one of:

  • Python
  • JavaScript / TypeScript
  • We care significantly more about engineering fundamentals, problem-solving ability and ownership than experience with a specific language or framework.
  • Strong engineers can learn frameworks and languages quickly.

Strong Advantages

  • FastAPI
  • Node.js
  • Express.js
  • NestJS
  • React
  • PostgreSQL
  • Docker
  • AWS or GCP
  • Event-driven systems
  • Webhooks and third-party integrations
  • LLMs and AI workflows
  • Observability and monitoring
  • Telephony, Twilio or LiveKit
  • Experience working in startups

Why Join Us?

  • Build production AI systems used by real customers.
  • Work directly with founders and experienced engineers.
  • Own problems instead of just writing code.
  • Extremely high learning velocity and responsibility.
  • Small team, high impact.
  • Opportunity to become an early engineering leader as the company scales.

If you build something on Monday, it can be in production by Friday.

Working Model

The selected candidate will relocate to Goa for the first six months and work closely with our engineering team.

This period is designed for:

  • rapid onboarding,
  • close collaboration,
  • deep understanding of our systems,
  • frequent feedback and code reviews,
  • fast execution and learning.

After the initial six months, the role will transition to a hybrid working model.

Compensation & Upside

  • ₹14–18 LPA based on capability and experience.
  • Relocation support to Goa.
  • Significant ownership and learning opportunities.
  • For exceptional performers who demonstrate long-term ownership and leadership potential, we offer participation in our ESOP programme.

What Success Looks Like

Within the first three months, you should be able to:

  • Independently own production features.
  • Investigate ambiguous problems.
  • Present multiple solution options and their trade-offs.
  • Implement and ship solutions quickly.
  • Monitor production outcomes and iterate based on data.
  • Raise the technical bar of the team.
  • Become someone the founders trust with mission-critical systems.

How to Apply

Please submit:

CV

LinkedIn profile

GitHub profile (strongly preferred)