Zeus AI Labs

Staff Software Engineer, Data Platform

Zeus AI Labs · San Francisco, CA
San Francisco, CA $100K–$300K Posted 2026-10-04
Salary
$100K–$300K
Type
Full-time
Experience
8+ yr

What are we looking for?

Hercules https://hercules.app is looking for a staff level platform engineer to help us build the future of AI software development

What will you do?

You will lead the Hercules platform-as-a-service

  • Hercules Database: An enterprise-grade, database-like object model with flexible schemas and fine-grained access controls. Similar to force.com (powering Salesforce) or Airtable.
  • Backend Services: A fast, scalable backend-as-a-service deeply tied to the Hercules Database
  • APIs & SDKs: Design the interfaces AI agents use to build on the platform
  • Performance & Scale: Engineer for low latency, high throughput, and efficient resource use
  • Hosting & Infrastructure: Build and operate the infrastructure that runs customer applications reliably, with strong tenant isolation, observability, and failure resilience

What skills do we expect you to have?

We expect candidates to be incredibly strong across all of the following areas:

  • Software fundamentals: system design, architecture, data modeling, and API design
  • Code and codebase quality: write clean, maintainable code. Work effectively in monorepos
  • Rust: build efficient, reliable production systems
  • Data systems: indexing, query performance, transactions, and consistency, etc
  • Infrastructure: scale large, data-intensive, multi-tenant, distributed services
  • Performance: optimize latency, throughput, and resource efficiency
  • AI: able to truly 10x your workflow by being on the frontier of AI coding

What’s Hercules’ stack?

  • Technologies: Typescript, React, AI SDK, Postgres, Redis, Clickhouse, Tailwind, IaC (CDK, Terraform), Docker, Otel, Hono, Drizzle ORM, Temporal
  • Clouds: Cloudflare, AWS
  • AI Models: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google

What are Hercules’ operating principles?

Hercules’ operating principles guide how we make decisions every day. We take them very seriously. Most of the principles can be learned on the job, however, we do specifically filter for the following principles in our hiring process:

1. We ship. We ship fast, iterate, and correct mistakes quickly. Our bias for action speeds up our learning and delights our customers.

2. We strive for excellence. Doing things well is in our DNA. We have good taste. We get the details right. Our outputs are exceptionally simple and self-serve. We’re proud of our work.

3. We are hungry. We are willing to work hard and break through walls to achieve the outcomes we want. We are willing to operate at any level to get things done.

Is Hercules in-office or remote?

Hercules founding team works in-office in San Francisco (Kearny and Bush). We have a very strong preference for in office. We are open to remote for exceptional candidates who are willing to 1) work in US time zones and 2) travel to the office regularly.

What are Hercules’ benefits?

  • Unlimited AI token budget
  • Take what you need vacation policy
  • Healthcare, vision, and dental
  • Daily lunches, dinners and snacks in the office
  • We guarantee you will do the best work of your career here

What’s the compensation?

$100k-$300k + equity (variable based on seniority, equity, and location)

SalesforceRustReactPostgreSQLRedisTailwind
$110K — 10th pctl $265K — 90th pctl
This role’s midpoint $200K vs. market median $180K for Engineering roles
+10%
above median
Based on 24,000+ Engineering roles with disclosed salary ranges tracked on NewJob.
E
Staff Software Engineer, AI Agent
San Francisco, CA Hybrid
Engineering
$100K–$350K
M
Head of Content
San Francisco, CA
Marketing
$150K–$300K
E
Staff Software Engineer, Billing and Monetization
San Francisco, CA Hybrid
Engineering
$100K–$300K
See all 25+ roles at Zeus AI Labs →
C
Software Engineer, Data Products & Platform
Clay Labs New York, NY Hybrid
Engineering
$170K–$300K
C
Senior / Staff Software Engineer, AI Platform
Clear Street Remote Remote
Engineering
$200K–$350K
N
Staff Engineer, Data Platform
NationGraph Toronto, Canada Hybrid
Engineering
$200K–$240K
O
Staff Software Engineer, Entitlements & Spend Platform
Orb San Francisco, CA Hybrid
Engineering
$212K–$293K
See all Engineering roles →

Interested in this role?

Apply directly on the company site — no recruiter middleman, no account required.

Apply now →
Apply on company site