Job description
Backend MCP Engineer (AI DevTool Start-Up)
$120,000 - $180,000 + Equity + Benefits + PTO
On-site in San Francisco, CA
Are you passionate about building the protocol infrastructure that powers the next generation of AI agents? Do you thrive in environments where you directly own open-source systems used by tens of thousands of developers worldwide?
This is an opportunity to join a fast-growing, profitable startup at the forefront of AI infrastructure, building the systems layer that powers how real customers deploy and use language models in production.
Backed by top-tier investors and trusted by major enterprises, the team has built a unified API framework that makes it seamless for developers to integrate across multiple LLM providers. Now, they're looking for a Founding Application / Systems Engineer to own the translation, rollout, and reliability of new models and endpoints across the platform.
Now, they're looking for a Backend MCP Engineer to own the design, implementation, and reliability of MCP protocol support across the platform. You'll take ownership of the agent tooling layer, shaping how AI agents discover tools, manage sessions, and call functions across every major LLM provider whilst working directly with the founders (alongside a global developer community) to ensure MCP support is production-ready, well-documented, and best-in-class.
If you're looking for a role where you can combine deep protocol engineering with real open-source impact and directly influence the infrastructure that underpins modern agentic AI, this is an outstanding opportunity.
The Role:
- Own and implement MCP server and client support across the gateway platform
- Build a unified tool calling interface that works consistently across OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and AWS Bedrock
- Implement session management and stateful agent workflows at scale
- Design and maintain the SDK for MCP server discovery and connection
- Improve observability, error handling, and system resilience for high-throughput async workloads
- Create examples and documentation that turn real-world MCP usage into platform improvements
- Collaborate with the open-source community and enterprise customers to ship reliable, production-grade agent infrastructure
The Person:
- Proficiency in Python and async frameworks
- Strong familiarity with MCP, function calling, or LLM tool orchestration layers
- Solid understanding of backend systems, API design, and protocol-level development (JSON-RPC, WebSockets, SSE)
- Comfortable owning production systems and shipping fast in a high-ownership environment
- Excited to work in an early-stage environment
Rise Technical Recruitment Inc of 1011 Centre Rd, Suite 322, Wilmington, DE 19805 act as an employer-paid private personnel agency.
The salary advertised is the bracket available for this position. The actual salary paid will be dependent on your level of experience, qualifications and skill set and will be decided by our client, the employer. Rise are not responsible or liable for any hiring decisions made by the end client.
We are an equal opportunities company and welcome applications from all suitable candidates.
