Founding Systems Engineer
Explicitly requires 'vibe engineering': using LLMs and coding agents to speed work while keeping strong human review, tests, and engineering responsibility.
About the Role
Founding Systems Engineer to own and build the backend and systems architecture for Ionworks' battery simulation and optimization platform, supporting large-scale numerical simulations. The role focuses on designing reliable APIs, optimizing performance and data systems, and responsibly using LLMs and coding agents to accelerate engineering while maintaining quality and observability.
Job Description
Role
Ionworks is hiring a Founding Systems Engineer to be the first dedicated backend and systems hire. You will own the architectural backbone of a battery simulation and optimization platform, build reliable APIs, optimize performance across the stack, and design robust data and job systems to support large-scale numerical simulation workflows.
Key Responsibilities
- Build and evolve backend services using FastAPI, async Python, and Supabase or Postgres.
- Design clear, stable API contracts for simulation, optimization, and data workflows.
- Architect schemas, transactions, indexing strategies, and migrations for evolving scientific workloads.
- Diagnose and optimize performance end-to-end: query plans, network latency, concurrency, and resource limits.
- Build resilient async job flows for running and tracking simulation pipelines, including distributed or queued workloads.
- Implement observability across the backend: tracing, logging, metrics, error handling, and recovery strategies.
- Use LLMs and coding agents to accelerate work while maintaining human review, tests, and code quality.
- Collaborate with founders and compute engineers to shape system architecture, engineering culture, and technical standards.
Requirements
- 4+ years of experience building production backend systems in Python (FastAPI, Flask, or similar).
- Strong SQL and Postgres experience, including schema design, query optimization, and migrations.
- Experience debugging complex systems: async concurrency, database connection pools, distributed or multi-service flows.
- Familiarity with cloud environments (for example AWS, GCP, Porter), Docker, and CI/CD pipelines.
- Comfortable owning systems that serve real users: correctness, performance, observability, and security.
- Experience using LLM tools in a supervised, production-focused way (helpers/agents you supervise).
- Clear communication and ability to work autonomously in an early-stage, fast-moving environment.
Nice to Have
- Experience with distributed or parallel systems such as Celery, Ray, Dask, or HPC queues.
- Background in numerical computing, scientific Python, or simulation workflows.
- Experience with multi-tenant architectures and dataset isolation strategies (including row-level security).
- Familiarity with TypeScript or React and building well-defined API contracts for frontends.
- Interest in energy storage, electrification, or engineering tooling.
- Contributions to open-source projects, especially PyBaMM or scientific/infrastructure tooling.
Vibe Engineering
- Use LLMs and coding agents to speed up work while retaining full responsibility for architecture, quality, and maintainability.
- Rely on strong engineering practices (tests, clear plans, documentation, CI/linting, manual QA) and treat agents as fast but literal collaborators.
Benefits
- Unlimited PTO
- 401(k) plan with employer match
- Medical, dental, and vision coverage
- Remote-first work environment
- Paid parental leave
- Home office and hardware budget
- Early ownership and meaningful equity