Agave — Full-Stack Software Engineer (SWE)

Type: Full-time | On-site (5 days/week) | San Francisco, CA Compensation: $130,000–$240,000 + equity Hiring count: 1 Visa sponsorship: Available for exceptional candidates (H-1B, TN, and other visa types) Reports to: Not specified in posting (hiring manager referenced as "Carina" in intake/red-flag notes)

About Agave

Agave is the modern data infrastructure platform for construction, the world's third-largest industry. They have 550+ paying customers on 1–3 year contracts, have been profitable and cash-flow positive since 2023, and are growing 10% monthly. Backed by Accel and Y Combinator, with angel investors from Procore, Autodesk, and Plaid. The three co-founders worked together for 12+ years at Graphiq (acquired by Amazon in 2017) and then at Amazon. The product is a platform where each layer builds on the last — data connectivity through fully automated workflows: ERP Sync, AP Automation, Expense Management, Vendor Management.

Founded: 2021 | Team size: 36 (About card lists bucket "11–50") | Total funding: not stated Industry: Property Tech / Construction data infrastructure Website: useagave.com Office: San Francisco, CA

Why Candidates Should Join

• Profitable, not burning runway: Cash-flow positive since 2023, 550+ paying customers, 10% monthly growth — durable business, not a pre-revenue bet.
• End-to-end ownership on a flat team: ~11-person flat eng org, no traditional manager layer; you own features as an IC and talk directly to customers.
• Genuinely hard backend problems: Unifying hundreds of fragmented legacy systems (SQL/DLL/API, built 20–40 years ago) under one API, real-time sync, millions of API requests/day, testing across 1,000+ endpoints.

Intake Call Summary

Intake exists as a video on the Contrario page and was not transcribed; the only intake-derived text available is the embedded hiring-manager quote in Red Flags and the role narrative below.

• Work is ~80–90% backend; full-stack but backend-weighted.
• Flat eng team: one engineering lead, a second being promoted internally; no specialization, everyone works across products.
• Ships daily based on direct customer feedback.
• Strong cultural emphasis on high ownership, intensity, in-person collaboration.

The Role

Agave is hiring full-stack/backend engineers who love simplifying complex systems, unifying fragmented data, and building large-scale infrastructure. You'll be hands-on with core backend systems syncing financial data across fragmented legacy software in real time (~80–90% backend).

What You'll Be Doing

• Build and maintain the unified API layer connecting construction ERPs to modern software (legacy SQL, DLL, and API-based systems from 20–40 years ago)
• Ship core backend systems for ERP Sync, AP Automation, Expense Management, and Vendor Management, with frontend work on apps that dog-food the API
• Solve real-time data sync challenges, including web-socket implementations for systems lacking native webhooks
• Build scalable testing frameworks to catch edge cases across 1,000+ endpoints
• Engage directly with customers and ship features daily based on real feedback

Tech stack: Not explicitly specified. Referenced technologies: AWS (cloud, preferred), SQL/DLL/API-based legacy systems, web-sockets, high-volume API infrastructure.

Requirements

• 1-5 years backend or full-stack engineering
• CS degree from top 20-30 school
• Cloud infrastructure: AWS preferred
• Startup or founding engineering experience
• High-ownership, low-ego operator

Green Flags

• Startup or founding engineering experience at pre-Seed through Series C. Demonstrates ability to ship in ambiguity and learn the chaotic pace Agave operates at.
• Top 20-30 school CS background, especially UWaterloo
• Serious athlete background (college or high school competitive sport). Strong correlation with discipline, time management, and high output.
• Multi-year tenure at a previous role. Signals follow-through and depth, not job-hopping.
• High GPA, meaningful academic awards, competitive extracurriculars (debate, etc.). Reliable signal for engineering rigor.

Red Flags

• Construction tech background on the SWE side. Carina direct: "We want to avoid software engineers with construction backgrounds because we're looking for the best software engineers and they're probably not with a construction background." Hard exclude for SWE specifically.
• Big tech only (FAANG without startup tenure). Acceptable only if junior with 2 years or less of big-tech time.
• Laid off from last role for performance reasons. Hard exclude.
• Currently in-between roles. Hard exclude.
• Preference for work-life balance, work on trendy tech (LLMs, crypto), mobile, embedded, or front-end. Hard mismatch with Agave's culture and core backend focus.
• Not looking for new grads

Role Details

Salary$130,000–$240,000Equity0.2%–0.5%On-site policyIn-person 5 days/week in SF; remote only for exceptional candidates outside the Bay AreaVisa sponsorshipAvailable for exceptional candidates (H-1B, TN, and other visa types)Employment typeFull-timeLocationSan Francisco, CA

Screening Questions

Contrario "Required Candidate Q&A" form fields:

1. LinkedIn Profile URL
2. What city do you live in?

Interview Process

Stage 1 — Pending Approval — Candidate awaiting initial approval. Stage 2 — Screen 1 Stage 3 — Screen 2 Stage 4 — Screen 3: System Design Stage 5 — Screen 3: Behavioral Interview Stage 6 — [Placeholder] Review Candidate (appears to be an unconfigured platform stage) Stage 7 — Onsite Stage 8 — Offer Extended Stage 9 — Candidate Hired — Candidate accepts and starts.

Ideal Companies & Backgrounds

No Ideal Companies section was present on the role page.

Ideal Candidate Profiles

For reference only — do not source these specific profiles. Card titled "Ideal Candidates -- DO NOT CONTACT." LinkedIn hrefs were not captured in the copied HTML (icon buttons only); names only below.

• Sebastian Danson — LinkedIn URL not captured
• Tan Aidan — LinkedIn URL not captured
• Jordan Chow — LinkedIn URL not captured

Rejected Candidate Feedback

• No substantive feedback on the page. Activity log shows one candidate "rejected by company" (~8 hours before capture, no reason given) and the "Not looking for new grads" red flag added ~2 days before capture.