Backend Software Engineer (API, SQL)

About The Company

Philo is at the forefront of redefining the television experience by providing a platform that allows users to watch their favorite shows across all their preferred devices seamlessly. Our product emphasizes effortless playback, insightful discovery, and easy sharing, creating a personalized and engaging viewing environment. As a company, we prioritize putting people first—both our subscribers and our team members—fostering an inclusive, transparent, and collaborative culture. We believe that diversity and different perspectives drive innovation and enable us to deliver the best possible experience to our users. Headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York City and Cambridge, MA, Philo boasts a leadership team with extensive experience from HBO, Tubi, and Meraki, and is supported by notable investors including NEA, Warner Brothers Discovery, Viacom, AMC, and A&E. Our commitment to growth, innovation, and inclusivity makes us a dynamic place to build a career in the evolving media landscape.

About The Role

We are seeking a Lead Backend Software Engineer (Product) to join our talented team and help shape the future of streaming technology. This role is central to Philo's mission of connecting customers with their favorite content through robust and scalable APIs that power our multi-platform application. The successful candidate will lead the development and evolution of our Product API, which supports millions of users across web, mobile, and connected TV devices. You will be responsible for designing high-performance, reliable APIs, guiding architectural decisions, and ensuring seamless integration with various client platforms. As an engineering leader, you will mentor team members, drive technical excellence, and collaborate closely with product, data science, and infrastructure teams. Your work will directly impact user experience, content discovery, and platform stability, making this a highly influential and rewarding position within our organization.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software development experience
• 2+ years of experience mentoring or leading engineering teams
• Proven expertise designing and implementing scalable GraphQL APIs
• Strong background in building efficient and highly available backend services using languages such as NodeJS, Ruby, Golang, or Python
• Experience operating in cloud environments with tools like Docker, Kubernetes, and AWS
• Deep understanding of API design principles, caching strategies, and performance optimization
• Experience working with large datasets, relational and non-relational databases, and modern data warehousing solutions
• Ability to design cohesive API abstractions that separate concerns and support flexible client needs
• Experience building proxy and aggregation layers for integrating multiple backend services
• Familiarity with experimentation frameworks, feature flags, and A/B testing infrastructure
• Excellent communication skills and ability to collaborate across cross-functional teams
• Understanding of video streaming ecosystems and multi-platform API challenges
• Experience with product-facing APIs or machine learning systems is a plus

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership to the Product API team, including system architecture, design tradeoffs, and mentoring
• Collaborate with product and client engineering teams to design and deliver performant GraphQL APIs that enhance user experience
• Own and evolve critical subsystems such as recommendations, catalog, search, notifications, user preferences, and experiments
• Build and maintain proxy and augmentation layers that unify domain services into cohesive APIs
• Drive improvements in API reliability, performance, scalability, and maintainability, ensuring sub-second response times and high availability
• Partner with data science and analytics teams to instrument APIs for experimentation, testing, and data-driven decision-making
• Develop and enhance observability tools to monitor API health, debug issues, and optimize cache utilization
• Work closely with infrastructure teams to optimize database queries, caching strategies, and system scaling
• Ensure cross-team coordination for smooth partner integrations and platform stability

Benefits

• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance coverage for employees and their families
• 401(k) plan with employer matching contributions
• Flexible working hours and remote work options within the U.S.
• Up to 20 weeks of fully paid parental leave
• Unlimited paid time off for vacation and sick leave
• Annual vacation bonus to encourage taking time off
• Annual professional development and educational assistance
• Home office stipend and TV stipend during the first year of employment
• Monthly bonus for office attendance and commuter benefits
• Free Gympass subscription for wellness
• Dog-friendly office environment
• And additional perks designed to support work-life balance and professional growth