TheTop is an AI-powered executive assistant that turns your email, calendar, and communication patterns into a sharp daily brief — telling you what matters, who needs your attention, and what to decide. We’re a small, fast-moving startup with a live product, real users, and a US-based business team. No layers of management. No endless approval chains.
Intro
TheTop — an early-stage AI startup — is looking for a Middle Python & AI Engineer to help us launch a new product direction, working directly alongside our CTO and CEO.
This is a 0-to-1 role. You won’t just implement tickets — you’ll help shape the architecture, run experiments to find the right approach, and push our AI engine to be faster, smarter, and more efficient. We’re looking for someone who is genuinely entrepreneurial about AI and comfortable operating where the path isn’t fully defined yet.
What You’ll Do * Help design the architecture of a new AI-driven product direction * Run research and experiments — and turn findings into real technical decisions * Improve our core AI engine (prompt design, caching, context strategies, retrieval, cost/latency) * Build and scale backend services with Python + FastAPI * Work shoulder-to-shoulder with the CTO and CEO
Requirements * 3+ years of experience in backend or full-stack development * Strong knowledge of Python, API design, and web frameworks * Hands-on experience building AI products — real work with LLM APIs and the architecture around them (not just calling a model once) * Comfortable reasoning about LLM cost/latency trade-offs, prompting, context windows, and token economics * Experience with external integrations and background processing * Entrepreneurial, research-driven mindset — you like proving ideas with experiments, not just opinions * Self-driven and comfortable working in early-stage, ambiguous environments
Will Be a Plus * Familiarity with LangChain, vector DBs, RAG, and agent frameworks * Experience shipping developer-facing APIs or integrations * Built SaaS tools or internal productivity platforms * Familiarity with frontend frameworks (React, Vue, etc.) * Startup or solo project experience
What We Offer * Full ownership of your technical direction * Flexible working hours and remote-first setup * Direct collaboration with the founders (CTO + CEO) * Opportunity to shape a product from 0 to 1
How to Apply
Send a short intro (what AI products you’ve built and why this direction interests you) and your CV with salary expectations.
