Description review
Staff Software Engineer, Data Platform (Rust)
Hercules · San Francisco, Remote - North America · back to the listing
HR standards
56/100
needs work
Title ↔ description
86/100
strong
Reads as
Backend Engineer
91% confident
What this role officially is
software developer — ESCO, the EU occupation classification
Software developers implement or program all kinds of software systems based on specifications and designs by using programming languages, tools, and platforms.
Also known as: application developer, application programmer, solutions developer, programmer, software specialist, application software developer
How others title the same work
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Startups
- Anterior (Sequoia-backed, Series B) | Senior Member of Technical Staff | On-Site (New York, NY) | Full Time | $230,000–$300,000 + equity Anterior (Sequoia-backed, Series B)
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- Distributed Systems Engineer Beam
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- Blaine, WA | CaseLight Systems Inc. (CSI) | Solo Founder | Remote (US Only) | Founding Systems Engineer | FULL EQUITY (30% Stake) Blaine, WA
What the listing never says
- 23 bullet points. Long requirement lists deter qualified candidates, who read them as hard gates. Scope clarity
The listing, marked up
Nothing in the wording of this listing tripped a check. The scores above still judge how complete and coherent it is.
What are we looking for?
Hercules 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:
• We ship. We ship fast, iterate, and correct mistakes quickly. Our bias for action speeds up our learning and delights our customers.
• 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.
• 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)
Hercules 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:
• We ship. We ship fast, iterate, and correct mistakes quickly. Our bias for action speeds up our learning and delights our customers.
• 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.
• 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)