Backend Engineer
Job Summary
Job Description
As a Backend Engineer on the AI Team, you will play a critical role in building, scaling, and optimizing the infrastructure that supports our ML-powered clinical features, decision support systems, and upcoming innovations in Generative AI. You will work with cross-functional teams to ensure Sword’s products are robust, scalable, and secure, empowering both our internal and external users with seamless access to personalized, data-driven care. This role involves architecting, designing, and building backend systems, integrating with various external systems, and collaborating with teams to define technical requirements.
Must have:
- 3+ years of backend engineering experience.
- Proficiency in Python for ML-powered systems.
- Experience with databases (SQL and NoSQL).
- Experience building and maintaining high-performance APIs.
- Understanding of software design patterns.
Good to have:
- Experience in healthcare or health-tech domain.
- Familiarity with integrating AI/ML models.
- Experience with distributed systems.
- Proficiency in Python frameworks (e.g. FastAPI, Django, Flask).
- Familiarity with event-driven architectures.
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines.
- Exposure with cloud platforms like GCP, Azure or AWS.
- Passion for working in the healthcare space.
Perks:
- Health, dental and vision insurance
- Meal allowance
- Equity shares
- Remote work allowance
- Flexible working hours
- Work from home
- Discretionary vacation
- Snacks and beverages
- English class
19 skills required
Job Details
Sword Health is on a mission to free two billion people from pain.
With 67% of members achieving a pain-free life and a 70% reduction in surgery intent, at Sword, we are using AI Care to change lives, and save millions for our 25,000+ enterprise clients across three continents. Today, we hold the majority of industry patents, win 70% of competitive evaluations, and have raised more than $300 million from top venture firms like Founders Fund, Sapphire Ventures, General Catalyst, and Khosla Ventures.
Recognized as a Forbes Best Startup Employer in 2025, this award highlights our focus on being a destination for the best and brightest talent. Not only have we experienced unprecedented growth since our market debut in 2020, but we’ve also created a remarkable mission and value-driven environment that is loved by our growing team. With a recent valuation of $3 billion, we are in a phase of hyper growth and expansion, and we’re looking for individuals with passion, commitment, and energy to help us scale our global impact.
Joining Sword means committing to a set of core values, chief amongst them to “do it for the patients” every day, and to always “deliver more than expected” on behalf of our members and clients.
This is an opportunity for you to make a significant difference on a massive scale as you work alongside 900+ (and growing!) talented colleagues, spanning three continents. Your charge? To help us build a pain-free world, powered by AI, enhanced by people — accessible to all.
At Sword, we are reimagining healthcare by combining cutting-edge AI/ML technology with personalized care. Our goal is to provide world-class clinical support at a scale never seen before - where each patient’s journey is as individualized as possible. As a Backend Engineer on the AI Team, you will play a critical role in building, scaling, and optimizing the infrastructure that supports our ML-powered clinical features, decision support systems, and upcoming innovations in Generative AI.
You’ll work directly with cross-functional teams to ensure Sword’s products are robust, scalable, and secure, empowering both our internal and external users with seamless access to personalized, data-driven care.
If you’re a backend engineer eager to dive deep into AI, this is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for.
What you’ll be doing:
- Architect, design, and build backend systems that transform our internal AI technology into a scalable, market-ready product;
- Externalize our technology with a focus on reliability, performance, and real-world usability;
- Work side-by-side with the AI team to turn cutting-edge research into enterprise-ready solutions;
- Design and optimize APIs, database schemas, and data processing workflows that seamlessly integrate with our AI/ML pipelines;
- Develop backend architectures that enable the efficient deployment of machine learning models in production;
- Work closely with the AI and Data teams to design backend architectures that enable the effective deployment of machine learning models at scale;
- Collaborate with the Product, Data, and Engineering teams to define technical requirements and deliver features that enhance our users’ experience and overall system performance;
- Identify performance bottlenecks and scale our systems as our user base and data complexity grow;
- Drive key technical decisions on infrastructure, tools, and best practices in a fast-moving, collaborative environment;
- Mentor junior engineers, promote best practices, and advocate for a high standard of code quality and testing.
What you need to have:
- 3+ years of professional experience in backend engineering, with a focus on building scalable systems and services;
- Proficiency in Python as the primary language for our ML-powered systems, with hands-on experience in Python-based frameworks and libraries. If you’re not yet proficient but are highly motivated to learn, we’d love to hear from you as well! We value a strong willingness to grow and adapt;
- While Python will be at the heart of most of your work, you’ll also be involved in integrating with various external systems and services, which may require working with other technology stacks. We’re looking for someone who’s comfortable adapting and learning new tools as needed to drive these integrations;
- Solid experience working with databases (SQL and NoSQL) and optimizing complex queries and transactions;
- Proven experience in building and maintaining high-performance APIs;
- Strong understanding of software design patterns, microservices architecture, and cloud-native applications;
- Ability to work in a fast-paced, agile environment while handling multiple technical priorities and collaborating effectively across teams;
- Excellent problem-solving skills with an ability to break down complex tasks into manageable components.
What we would love to see:
- Experience working in a healthcare or health-tech domain;
- Familiarity with integrating AI/ML models into production systems;
- Experience with distributed systems and high-availability services;
- Strong proficiency in Python, including experience with Python-based frameworks and libraries used in production environments (e.g. FastAPI, Django, Flask);
- Familiarity with event-driven architectures and messaging systems (e.g. GCP Pubsub, Kafka, RabbitMQ);
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines and automated testing frameworks;
- Exposure with cloud platforms like GCP, Azure or AWS, and familiarity with containerized (e.g. Docker, Kubernetes) architectures;
- Passion for working on challenging, high-impact problems in the healthcare space.
To ensure you feel good solving a big Human problem, we offer:
- A stimulating, fast-paced environment with lots of room for creativity and ownership;
- Career development and growth, with a competitive salary;
- The opportunity to work with a talented team on cutting-edge AI/ML applications that have the potential to transform the future of healthcare;
- A flexible environment where you can control your hours (remotely) with unlimited vacation;
- Access to our health and well-being program (digital therapist sessions);
- Remote or Hybrid work policy.
€36,048 - €52,428 a year
Base: €27,300 - €42,900
Variable: €1,365 - €2,145
Net equity value per year: €7,383
These compensation bands are just the starting point. Once someone joins and proves they’re outlier talent, we adjust quickly to ensure their compensation aligns with their impact.
Our job titles may span more than one career level. Actual pay is determined by skills, qualifications, experience, location, market demand, and other factors. Compensation details listed in this posting reflect the base salary and any potential variable, bonus or sales incentives, and the Company’s estimation of the value of private company stock options, if applicable. The pay range is subject to change, future value of company stock options is not guaranteed, and compensation may be modified in the future. In addition to our total compensation, Sword offers a number of benefits as listed below.
Portugal - Sword Benefits & Perks:
• Health, dental and vision insurance
• Meal allowance
• Equity shares
• Remote work allowance
• Flexible working hours
• Work from home
• Discretionary vacation
• Snacks and beverages
• English class
Note: Please note that this position does not offer relocation assistance. Candidates must possess a valid EU visa and be based in Portugal.
Sword Health, which includes SWORD Health, Inc. and Sword Health Professionals (consisting of Sword Health Care Providers, P.A., SWORD Health Care Providers of NJ, P.C., SWORD Health Care Physical Therapy Providers of CA, P.C.*) complies with applicable Federal and State civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of Age, Ancestry, Color, Citizenship, Gender, Gender expression, Gender identity, Gender information, Marital status, Medical condition, National origin, Physical or mental disability, Pregnancy, Race, Religion, Caste, Sexual orientation, and Veteran status.
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