About the job Member of Technical Staff
Sphinx Labs is a YC-backed, $7M+ seed-stage startup building AI agents that tackle financial crime — the invisible backbone of global corruption. Trusted by leading banks and fintechs across the U.S., Canada, Europe, and LatAm, Sphinx's customers have seen 90% less manual work and 4× lower costs. The team is tackling three hard technical challenges: browser agents for the invisible web (legacy government portals, unstructured data), a global risk graph reconciling entities across borders and shell structures, and scalable inference for millions of daily transactions.
About the Role
As a Member of Technical Staff, you'll own backend development and ML systems that power Sphinx's financial crime detection platform. High-agency role working with frontier technology at a startup with zero bullshit — they're chasing customers, not investors.
Technical Challenges
- Browser Agents for the Invisible Web: Agents that navigate legacy systems, government portals, and third-party platforms using computer vision, DOM understanding, and robust error handling at scale
- The Global Risk Graph: Risk agents operating across languages and regulations, reconciling entities hidden behind shell structures and mismatched disclosures
- Scalable Inference: Systems processing millions of transactions daily with low latency
Requirements
Must-Have
- Experience with backend development and/or ML, especially Python and AWS
- Hands-on experience deploying software to production environments
- Strong communication skills; willingness to interact with clients
Nice-to-Have
- Experience with browser automation and computer vision
- Background with distributed inference and optimization on AWS
- Familiarity with LLM systems and deep research pipelines
- Experience building systems that process millions of transactions at scale
- Knowledge of compliance, AML, KYC, or financial crime domains
- Competitive coding background; open-source contributions
- Prior founder or early-stage engineer experience
Interview Process
- Recruiter screen
- Technical interview (no live coding)
- Short paid in-person trial
- Offer
Job Details
- Salary: $120,000 – $300,000
- Experience: 1+ years
- Visa: H-1B, O-1, OPT sponsored
- Location: San Francisco — in-person
- Headcount: 3 open seats
- Equity: Competitive
Benefits & Perks
- Lunch, dinner, and snacks at the office
- Comprehensive healthcare
- Unlimited PTO
- Annual offsite
- Paid relocation and one month temporary housing
- Latest tech and multiple monitors