Senior Backend Engineer, MCP

About the Role

Join Zapier's AI Orchestration Zone as a Senior Backend Engineer to design and scale foundational systems for the Model Context Protocol (MCP), enabling AI agents to seamlessly interact with over 8,000 integrations. This is an exciting opportunity to define how AI agents get work done and shape the future of automation.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and evolve core APIs that enable agents to take meaningful actions across Zapier’s ecosystem.
• Build systems that support scalable orchestration, robust logging, and high-availability execution.
• Collaborate on the architecture for MCP primitives like memory, context windows, and reasoning steps.
• Integrate with Zapier’s existing execution infrastructure and help build the interfaces between LLMs and automations.
• Partner closely with Product, Platform, and Sales teams to ensure the protocol serves both external and internal needs.
• Drive design decisions that prioritize scalability, performance, security, and clarity for developers and AI systems alike.

Requirements

• 6+ years of experience designing, developing, and maintaining complex production backend systems.
• Proficiency in writing backend services, ideally with Python or Node.js.
• Strong understanding of API design, database modeling, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience with AI tools and building systems that enable effective AI usage, including model context protocols or agent frameworks.
• Proven ability in platform thinking, focusing on extensibility, documentation, and robust foundations.
• Customer-centric approach, continuously seeking context and asking questions to meet user needs.
• Bias toward action, creating clarity and momentum for projects, and demonstrating an ownership mindset.

Role Impact

• Define how AI agents interact with third-party systems through Zapier.
• Shape a new protocol that impacts both internal platform teams and external developers.
• Work on high-trust, cross-functional projects with executive-level visibility.
• Influence long-term architecture for Zapier’s most ambitious product experiences.
• Be part of a fast-moving, experimental team that values curiosity, clarity, and velocity.