Senior Backend Engineer, Create: Code Creation (Ruby and Python)

An overview of this role

The Create: Code Creation team builds and maintains AI-powered code development tools that help developers write, review, and understand code more effectively. Our team has successfully launched multiple foundational AI capabilities including Code Suggestions (AI-assisted code completions in multiple IDEs), Duo Code Review (automated AI-powered code review), and the Knowledge Graph (intelligent code indexing and context system). We're now expanding and deepening these capabilities across Duo's AI suite.

As a Staff Engineer, you'll provide technical leadership for sophisticated systems that power our AI-driven code creation features. You'll architect solutions that analyze codebases to provide relevant context to large language models, design systems that coordinate multiple AI agents and tools, and help shape the technical direction of AI initiatives. You'll work across multiple services and technologies including our main Rails application, AI Gateway (Python), Knowledge Graph (Rust), and Language Server (TypeScript), ensuring our solutions maintain high performance and reliability for our global user base.

What You’ll Do

• Architect and lead the implementation of complex AI-powered coding assistance systems spanning multiple services and technologies (Ruby/Rails, Python, Rust, TypeScript)
• Drive technical strategy for AI coding tools including code suggestions, code review, and code generation capabilities
• Design and build scalable, high-performance APIs and services that power IDE extensions and AI-assisted development workflows
• Lead initiatives to improve the quality, relevance, and responsiveness of AI-generated code suggestions and reviews
• Evaluate and integrate emerging AI/ML models and technologies to enhance our coding assistance capabilities
• Provide technical mentorship and guidance to engineers across the Code Creation team and collaborate with other teams
• Influence product and engineering decisions by proposing thorough, iterative solutions to complex technical and architectural challenges
• Drive innovation in AI-powered development tools, experimenting with new approaches to code suggestion, review, and generation
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams across product, engineering, marketing, and more
• Represent the team in technical discussions with customers and stakeholders about AI-powered development capabilities

What You’ll Bring

• Significant professional experience with Ruby on Rails and Python, with a track record of building production systems at scale
• Proven ability to architect and lead complex technical projects from concept to production across distributed systems
• Strong experience with AI/ML technologies, including integration with large language models and understanding of prompt engineering
• Deep expertise in performance optimization, particularly for systems handling high-volume API requests
• Experience designing and building distributed systems with a focus on reliability, observability, and scalability
• Strong background in database design and optimization for applications processing large datasets
• Demonstrated ability to drive technical decisions and influence engineering strategy across multiple teams
• Experience mentoring engineers and raising the technical capabilities of a team
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for collaborating in a remote, globally distributed environment
• Ability to work effectively across different technology stacks and quickly learn new languages and frameworks as needed

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience with Rust and/or TypeScript
• Background in developer tools, IDEs, or language servers
• Experience with graph databases or knowledge graph systems
• Prior work on AI agent systems or multi-agent architectures
• Contributions to open source projects, particularly in the AI or developer tools space
• Experience with code analysis tools, static analyzers, or abstract syntax trees

About the team

The Code Creation team is at the forefront of AI initiatives, focusing on helping developers create and maintain code more efficiently. We've successfully launched our Code Suggestions feature and are now working on expanding capabilities through better context awareness, AI-powered code review, knowledge graphs, and intelligent agent coordination across the product suite.

Our team collaborates globally across multiple time zones, working with various groups across engineering. We maintain a balance between shipping innovative new features and ensuring high performance and reliability for our global user base. The AI landscape is rapidly evolving, and our team adapts quickly to new developments and opportunities.

You can learn more about our team's direction and goals in our public handbook.