[Hiring] Backend Engineer @Ascend Partner Services

Role Description

Ascend is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to join the AI team, led by the Chief AI Officer, to deliver on the mission of transforming public accounting through technology. This individual will own and execute the engineering plan to significantly reduce project effort at Partner Firms through AI-enabled products.

• Own and deliver the Tax Product for designated firms.
• Get up to speed on the existing codebase and current product requirements.
• Partner closely with Product Management to design and build solutions.
• Work hand-in-hand with the Frontend Engineer to deliver complete product slices.
• Use AI-native development tools (Claude, Cursor, etc.) to accelerate productivity.
• Contribute to the continued development of Ascend’s Agentic Framework.
• Deeply understand Ascend’s AI vision and drive its implementation within the backend domain.
• Advocate for AI-enabled architecture and infrastructure decisions.
• Contribute production-level code across backend services and infrastructure.
• Deliver high-quality code on time and increase delivery capacity.
• Unblock teammates by reviewing code and improving documentation.
• Drive sustained improvements in product velocity across the broader Ascend engineering organization.
• Live the Ascend values and carry the culture.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field; equivalent professional experience considered.
• Significant experience as a backend or full-stack engineer building and shipping production software.
• Strong proficiency in modern backend languages and frameworks (e.g., Python, TypeScript/Node.js, Go).
• Hands-on experience integrating with foundation model APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.).
• Demonstrated fluency with AI-native development environments (Claude, Cursor, Copilot, etc.).
• Strong ROI judgment and the ability to balance close customer collaboration with disciplined prioritization.
• Working knowledge of cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure), CI/CD pipelines, containerization, and secure coding practices.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to build trust quickly with Product Managers and fellow engineers.
• Bias toward delivery, intellectual curiosity, and excitement about transforming a traditional industry with AI.

Company Description

Ascend empowers entrepreneurial CPAs to reach their goals with an innovative growth model. Founded in January 2023, the company attained revenues sufficient to qualify it as a Top 100 U.S. accounting firm within six months of operations.