Senior Software Engineer, Backend/Investigative Agent at Flock%20safety

WHO IS FLOCK? Flock is the leading safety technology platform, helping communities thrive by taking a proactive approach to crime prevention and security. Our hardware and software suite connects cities, law enforcement, businesses, schools, and neighborhoods in a nationwide public-private safety network. Trusted by over 5,000 communities, 4,500 law enforcement agencies, and 1,000 businesses, Flock delivers real-time intelligence while prioritizing privacy and responsible innovation. We’re a high-performance, low-ego team driven by urgency, collaboration, and bold thinking. Working at Flock means tackling big challenges, moving fast, and continuously improving. It’s intense but deeply rewarding for those who want to make an impact. With nearly $700M in venture funding and a $7.5B valuation, we’re scaling intentionally and seeking top talent to help build the impossible. If you value teamwork, ownership, and solving tough problems, Flock could be the place for you. THE OPPORTUNITY We're hiring a Senior Backend Engineer to lead the architectural evolution of Nightshift, a conversational AI assistant that helps investigators surface critical evidence and close cases faster. This isn't just about wrapping an LLM; it’s about building the "brains" of an investigative agent. You will design the orchestration backend that manages complex LLM interactions, develop high-performance integration pipelines connecting our AI to Flock's massive data platform, and build the agentic framework that allows Nightshift to "act" on behalf of investigators. This is a ground-floor opportunity to solve the reliability and scaling challenges of deploying AI in high-stakes, real-time investigative workflows. You’ll partner with ML engineers on agentic workflows and platform teams to design robust APIs that ground AI in truth, ensuring our system remains performant as we process billions of data points daily. THE SKILLSET - Love for writing clean, performant code and a track record of building production-grade backend systems. - Strong proficiency in Python and TypeScript (Node) for building scalable web services, open to Go as well. - Experience with agentic patterns, including function calling, tool use (MCP), and orchestrating multi-step LLM workflows. - Ability to write and optimize complex SQL queries and data access patterns to ensure LLMs are grounded in real-time data without sacrificing latency or system performance. - Deep understanding of OpenAI/Anthropic/Gemini APIs, prompt engineering, and managing complex conversation state/context. - Proven ability to build seamless API integrations with LLMs, managing the bridge between unstructured model outputs and structured internal services through robust error handling and schema validation. - Strong database confidence with PostgreSQL, OLAP Databases, and Redis. You know how to use the right tool for the job to ensure fast retrieval. - Experience with microservice-oriented architecture and designing for scale (we handle 1B+ images daily). - Proficient with AWS services, Kubernetes (EKS), Docker, and CI/CD build tooling. - You thrive in "zero-to-one" environments, taking ambiguous problems and turning them into technical roadmaps. - Experience with LLM evaluation (LangSmith/Langfuse), vector search/RAG, or infrastructure-as-code (Terraform). 90 DAYS AT FLOCK The First 30 Days: - Familiarize yourself with Flock’s investigative workflows and the massive data pipelines that power our platform. - Pair with ML (agentic systems), Data Engineering (investigative datasets), and Platform teams to understand the existing API landscape. - Complete your first push to production. Pick up initial sprint tickets focused on API integrations, backend bug fixes, or performance tuning for LLM streaming. The First 60 Days: - Implement the backend orchestration layer for LLM tool calling and multi-step reasoning. - Design and build the "connectors" that allow Night Shift to securely and efficiently query Flock’s core data services. - Stand up robust tracing and logging for the AI system to monitor agentic decision-making and reliability. - Own end-to-end backend features that connect the LLM to our internal APIs, ensuring low-latency responses for investigators. 90 Days & Beyond: - Lead the development of a core Nightshift capability—like automated lead generation or cross-camera correlation—that demonstrably closes cases faster. - Establish best practices for testing and deploying AI agents within a microservices environment. - Influence the product direction by identifying how new backend capabilities or AI breakthroughs can solve untapped investigator pain points. THE INTERVIEW PROCESS We want our interview process to be a true reflection of our culture: transparent and collaborative. Throughout the interview process, your recruiter will guide you through the next steps and ensure you feel prepared every step of the way. To check out our interview stages and how you should prepare visit experiences on our careers page [Upgrade to PRO to see link] SALARY & EQUITY In this role, you’ll receive a starting salary of $170,000-$200,000 as well as stock options. Base salary is determined by job-related experience, education/training, as well as market indicators. Your recruiter will discuss this in-depth with you during our first chat. THE PERKS 🌴Flexible PTO: We seriously mean it, plus 11 company holidays. ⚕️Fully-paid health benefits [Upgrade to PRO to see link] plan for employees: including Medical, Dental, and Vision and an HSA match. 👪Family Leave: All employees receive 12 weeks of 100% paid parental leave. Birthing parents are eligible for an additional 6-8 weeks of physical recovery time. 🍼Fertility & Family Benefits: We have partnered with Maven [Upgrade to PRO to see link] a complete digital health benefit for starting and raising a family. Flock will provide a $50,000-lifetime maximum benefit related to eligible adoption, surrogacy, or fertility expenses. 🧠Spring Health: Spring Health offers a variety of mental health benefits, including therapy, coaching, medication management, and digital tools, all tailored to each individual's needs. 💖Caregiver Support: We have partnered with Cariloop [Upgrade to PRO to see link] to provide our employees with caregiver support 💸Carta Tax Advisor: Employees receive 1:1 sessions with Equity Tax Advisors who can address individual grants, model tax scenarios, and answer general questions. 💚ERGs: We want all employees to thrive and feel like they belong at Flock. We offer three ERGs today - Women of Flock, Flock Proud, and Melanin Motion. If you are interested in talking to a representative from one of these, please let your recruiter know. 💻WFH Stipend: $150 per month to cover the costs of working from home. 📚Productivity Stipend: $300 per year to use on Audible, Calm, Masterclass, Duolingo, Grammarly and so much more. 🏠Home Office Stipend: A one-time $750 to help you create your dream office. If an offer is extended and accepted, this position requires the ability to obtain and maintain Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) certification as a condition of employment. Applicants must meet all FBI CJIS Security Policy requirements, including a fingerprint-based background check. Flock is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diverse backgrounds and thoughts and welcome everyone to apply for employment with us. We are committed to fostering an environment that is inclusive, transparent, and collaborative. Mutual respect is central to how Flock operates, and we believe the best solutions come from diverse perspectives, experiences, and skills. We embrace our differences and know that we are stronger working together. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please email us at [Upgrade to PRO to see contact]. This information will be treated as confidential and used only to determine an appropriate accommodation for the interview process. At Flock, we compensate our employees fairly for their work. Base salary is determined by job-related experience, education/training, as well as market indicators. The range above is representative of base salary only and does not include equity, sales bonus plans (when applicable) and benefits. This range may be modified in the future. This job posting may span more than one career level. Flock is aware of fraudulent individuals and agencies falsely claiming to represent our company. All legitimate communication from Flock will come from an email address ending in @flocksafety.com [Upgrade to PRO to see link] We do not make job offers through messaging apps, social platforms, or unauthorized third parties, and we will never request payment or sensitive personal information during the hiring process. If you encounter suspicious outreach related to a Flock role, please report it to [Upgrade to PRO to see contact]