Senior Full-Stack AI Developer (Python + LLMs/Claude)

We are looking for a strong senior full-stack developer with hands-on AI/LLM experience to join our team and help build the next generation of an AI-powered health and nutrition platform. This is not a research/ML role. We are looking for someone who knows how to use modern AI models effectively to build reliable, production-ready features and can own features end-to-end. What you'll be working on Our platform combines health, nutrition, blood work, wearable, sleep, and other user data to provide personalized recommendations. One of our biggest upcoming projects is building a deeply integrated AI chatbot that can answer personalized health and nutrition questions using the user's data across the platform. You'll also help improve and rebuild parts of our existing AI-powered features, including: AI-powered meal and recipe generation Personalized nutrition recommendations LLM-powered analysis of user health data AI chatbot with access to structured user data Building guardrails to keep AI responses focused and reliable Improving AI output quality and consistency Building structured knowledge bases/RAG systems where appropriate Integrating AI capabilities into existing backend and frontend systems Evaluating different LLMs and choosing the right model for each use case Using tools such as Claude, OpenAI, or other strong modern models to accelerate development What we're looking for Must have Strong Python backend experience Strong full-stack development experience Production experience building applications with LLMs / AI APIs Experience with Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, or similar modern AI models Ability to design reliable prompts, structured outputs, tool/function calling, and AI workflows Experience building AI features that go beyond simply sending a prompt to an LLM Understanding of AI guardrails, context management, validation, and hallucination prevention Experience working with APIs and integrating AI into existing products Strong database/backend fundamentals Ability to independently take a feature from idea → architecture → implementation → production Strong pluses Experience with RAG / vector databases / embeddings Experience building AI chatbots or AI assistants Experience with structured knowledge bases Experience with health, nutrition, fitness, or wellness products Experience integrating wearable or health-related data Experience working with large amounts of structured user data Experience with React/Next.js or similar frontend frameworks Experience working in an early-stage startup environment Important: we're looking for an AI-native developer We're not looking for someone who simply has "AI" listed on their resume. You should be someone who actively uses tools like Claude Code, ChatGPT, Cursor, or similar AI development tools as part of your engineering workflow and knows how to get high-quality results from them. You should be comfortable experimenting with different models, evaluating their outputs, understanding their limitations, and building the engineering layer around them to make AI features reliable. We want someone who can say: "Here's the problem, here's how I'd use an LLM to solve it, here's where the model can fail, and here's how I'd architect the system to handle those failures." Role & engagement We are initially looking for someone who can become a core member of the development team and take significant ownership of the AI development roadmap. You would work closely with the founders/product team and existing developers, with substantial involvement in architectural and technical decisions. We're open to discussing different engagement structures depending on the candidate, including: Full-time / embedded Long-term part-time Hourly initially with the possibility of transitioning into a larger role Our preference is one strong developer who can maintain context and own the AI stack, rather than multiple developers splitting the work. What success looks like In the first few weeks, we'd expect you to: Understand the existing architecture and AI implementation Identify weaknesses and opportunities in the current AI features Propose improvements to the meal/recipe generation system Help design the architecture for the AI health chatbot Establish reliable patterns for prompts, structured outputs, validation, and context Start shipping production improvements quickly To apply Please include: A brief description of your experience building production AI/LLM features Examples of AI products/features you've personally built Which LLMs you have worked with (Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, etc.) Your experience with Python + full-stack development How you currently use AI coding tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, ChatGPT, etc. One example of a situation where an LLM was producing unreliable or incorrect results and how you solved it Your hourly rate and availability Please prioritize concrete examples and shipped products over generic AI/ML experience.