Staff Backend Engineer

Remote (United States)

Job Details

Location: United States

Workplace: Remote

Employment Type: Full time

Experience: 8+ years of software engineering experience, including 3+ years of technical leadership

Core Areas: Python, distributed systems, microservices, event-driven architecture, system design, SQL and NoSQL databases, Google Cloud Platform, financial systems

Compensation: $210,000–$260,000 annually plus equity

About the Role

This opportunity is for a Staff Backend Engineer to architect and build complex production systems supporting payment processing, fraud detection, compliance, and user management. The role focuses on cross-domain backend architecture, distributed microservices, system reliability, performance, and technical decisions that affect the broader platform.

The position requires deep systems engineering expertise with Python, APIs, SQL and NoSQL databases, event-driven architectures, cloud infrastructure, and modern architecture patterns. The engineer will provide technical leadership through architecture decisions, mentoring, cross-team coordination, coding standards, and engineering best practices while working with product and compliance stakeholders.

What You'll Do

• Design and implement financial systems supporting payment processing, fraud detection, and compliance requirements.
• Architect cross-domain solutions that coordinate payments, fraud detection, user management, and compliance systems.
• Lead architecture decisions that affect the broader platform and establish engineering best practices for a growing technical organization.
• Mentor engineers and help establish coding standards, design patterns, and engineering practices.
• Improve reliability and performance across a distributed microservices architecture.
• Work with product and compliance teams to design systems that satisfy business and regulatory requirements.

Qualifications

Required Experience

• 8+ years of software engineering experience building complex production systems.
• 3+ years of technical leadership experience involving mentoring, architecture decisions, and cross-team coordination.
• Demonstrated systems engineering experience solving complex, cross-domain technical challenges.
• Experience with distributed systems, event-driven architectures, and microservices.

Required Skills

• Strong foundation in algorithms, data structures, and computer science fundamentals.
• Strong backend development skills with Python, including Python 3, web frameworks, and APIs.
• Experience designing and working with both SQL and NoSQL databases.
• Experience with Google Cloud Platform or similar cloud platforms.
• Understanding of architecture patterns including domain-driven design, clean architecture, and CQRS.
• Ability to design systems that balance performance, maintainability, and business requirements.

Education & Certifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field is required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in Computer Science or Engineering from an accredited university.
• Experience with payment processing, fraud detection, or compliance systems.
• Understanding of financial regulations and standards such as AML, KYC, and PCI DSS.
• Experience with financial APIs, banking integrations, and money movement systems.
• Experience with systems processing high transaction volumes.
• Experience coordinating multiple third-party service integrations.

Benefits

• Equity participation.
• 100% company-paid health insurance for employees.
• 401(k) with company matching.
• Additional employee benefits.
• Remote-first working environment with flexible working arrangements.
• Opportunities to lead technical decisions, mentor engineers, and influence engineering practices.