Backend Engineer, AI Interview Engine (Python)

Surgo Health is building the Behavioral Intelligence layer for healthcare — revealing why people behave as they do, predicting what they will do next, and helping organizations make the decisions that change outcomes. A Public Benefit Corporation grounded in two decades of global health experience, Surgo generates foundational behavioral data that reveals the unseen why and builds the AI products that power decision-grade insights at population scale — equipping healthcare organizations, funders, and public agencies to act on what actually shapes health outcomes: people's beliefs, motivations, and barriers. Backed by 40+ peer-reviewed publications and trusted by partners including the Gates Foundation, J&J, Takeda, Pivotal Ventures, and the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Surgo is building a future where healthcare organizations don't just understand human behavior, but anticipate it. Role Summary: We are looking for a Backend Engineer to join the R&D Engineering team building Derin, our AI-powered interview platform. At Derin's core is an interview engine: an LLM agent that conducts conversational interviews with participants over web, WhatsApp/SMS and voice, follows a researcher-designed survey with branching, quotas and screening, probes for depth, and keeps every conversation safe. You will own major parts of this engine: the survey definition language and its execution, the agent's conversational behavior, the APIs and data that the rest of the platform depends