Backend Engineer - Data Platform / AI Agents
California / Colorado / Texas
Engineering – Engineering /
Full-time /
Remote
Who We Are
Villa is building America’s leading next-generation homebuilding platform. With a mission to be the easiest, fastest and most cost-efficient way to build homes, Villa is a highly scalable new approach to offsite homebuilding and is critical in solving the many problems facing the U.S. housing market. Villa provides end-to-end services for customers that span feasibility, design, permitting, and construction of high-quality homes built using modern offsite construction. Villa is currently the largest ADU builder in California and is growing rapidly into other housing products and geographies.
We are looking for a Backend Engineer to join our team.
Why You’ll Love It
Collaborate directly with our VP of Engineering to drive critical architecture decisions. Leverage cutting-edge AI technology to deliver tangible breakthroughs in construction and real estate technology, transforming weeks-long processes into minutes.
This role is remote, with a preference for candidates based in California, Colorado, and Texas.
What You'll Do:
- Own the backend – Architect, build, and maintain scalable FastAPI endpoints that transform fragmented zoning, permitting, infrastructure, and product data into structured APIs powering our internal site-design and estimation systems.
- Source & Curate Strategic Data – Identify, evaluate, and secure access to diverse, high-value datasets (zoning regulations, building codes, parcel data, infrastructure availability, environmental constraints, pricing, etc.) from government, public, and commercial sources.
- Master Data Modeling & Management – Design clear and scalable Postgres schemas optimized for spatial and relational queries. Lead zero-downtime migrations from legacy data stores (e.g., Firestore) while strategically leveraging NoSQL where beneficial.
- Power AI-Driven Workflows – Implement cutting-edge Agentic AI frameworks, vector search, and retrieval-augmented generation to automate parcel scoring, site-layout generation, cost estimation, and feasibility analysis.
- Build Robust ETL Pipelines – Develop reliable, automated processes ensuring external datasets remain accurate and timely with minimal manual intervention, significantly improving data freshness and trustworthiness.
- Enable Data-Driven Decisions – Own and enhance our Fivetran → Postgres → BigQuery analytics pipeline, empowering teams with reliable self-service dashboards critical for strategic decision-making.
What You Have:
- 7+ years building production-quality backend systems, with at least 5 years leveraging API-based frameworks (FastAPI preferred)
- Demonstrated expertise in sourcing, evaluating, and managing diverse, complex datasets (e.g., zoning, infrastructure, real estate, and cost data).
- Deep SQL proficiency, including Postgres schema design, performance tuning, and spatial queries using PostGIS.
- Proven experience migrating from NoSQL (Firestore, DynamoDB, MongoDB) to relational schemas, understanding trade-offs and best practices.
- Hands-on experience with LLM and AI stacks (OpenAI, Claude, Gemini), and frameworks like Langchain for agentic AI implementations.
- Expertise designing secure, versioned REST or GraphQL APIs with practical authentication mechanisms.
- Proficiency with Cloud & DevOps tools: Docker, GitHub Actions (or equivalent CI/CD pipelines), and cloud providers (AWS/GCP/Azure).
- Track record of thriving in lean, dynamic, startup environments.
Bonus Qualifications:
- Geospatial analytics skills for implementing setback buffers, parcel scoring, and optimal lot-layout algorithms.
- Familiarity with construction tech and public/government land-use datasets and real estate analytics.
$144,500 - $170,000 a year
Compensation for this role is dependent on geographic location, based on the following tiers:
Tier 1: $144,500 - $170,000 in CA, CT, NJ, NY
Tier 2: $134,385 - $158,100 in AL, AK, AZ, CO, DE, GA, IL, MD, MA, MI, MN, NH, NC, OR, RI, TX, VA, WA
Tier 3: $130,050 - $153,000 in FL, HI, IN, KS, LA, MO, NV, OH, TN, UT, VT, WI
Tier 4: $122,825 - $144,500 in AR, ID, IA, KY, ME, MS, MT, NE, NM, ND, OK, PA, SC, SD, WV, WY
Ready to build the brain of the modern prefab-housing platform? Apply now and help us redefine land acquisition and project estimation with AI.
We are focused on building a diverse and inclusive workforce. If you're excited about this role, but do not meet 100% of the qualifications, we encourage you to apply.
Villa is an Equal Opportunity Employer and considers applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetics, or any other basis forbidden under federal, state, or local law. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and Los Angeles FCIHO, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
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