Staff Backend Engineer
About the role
Design, build, and operate backend systems that process and store large volumes of real-time telemetry data.
Own features end-to-end, from design to post-launch improvement.
Collaborate with Frontend, Design, and Data teams to ensure features solve real customer problems.
Optimize backend systems for performance, scalability, and reliability.
Contribute to system evolution—migrating services, introducing caches, and improving storage or indexing layers.
Participate in on-call rotations, debugging live issues, and improving observability.
Raise the bar through code reviews, shared patterns, and mentorship.
Responsibilities
- Design and implement backend systems for processing and storing telemetry data.
- Collaborate with frontend, design, and data teams to ensure features meet customer needs.
- Optimize systems for performance, scalability, and reliability.
- Migrate services, introduce caches, and improve storage or indexing layers.
- Debug live issues and improve observability.
- Contribute to code reviews, share best practices, and mentor junior engineers.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, or another STEM discipline.
- 7+ years of experience in backend or infrastructure roles.
- Strong understanding of distributed systems fundamentals—state, fault tolerance, recovery.
- Experience with Go, Rust, or Python, and strong Linux/networking fundamentals.
- Deep knowledge of SQL and operational database experience (indexing, migrations, tuning).
- Experience building and scaling APIs (REST, gRPC/Protobuf).
- Strong debugging skills and a production-first mindset.
- Familiarity with Kubernetes, Prometheus, Argo CD, and other modern infrastructure tools.
- Bonus points for experience with streaming or time-series data systems (Kafka, Flink, TimescaleDB, etc.), performance tuning and profiling at query or service layers, familiarity with observability tools (Datadog, Grafana), background in hardware or telemetry-heavy environments, and experience with performance tuning and profiling at query or service layers.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, or another STEM discipline.
- 7+ years of experience in backend or infrastructure roles.
- Strong understanding of distributed systems fundamentals—state, fault tolerance, recovery.
- Experience with Go, Rust, or Python, and strong Linux/networking fundamentals.
- Deep knowledge of SQL and operational database experience (indexing, migrations, tuning).
- Experience building and scaling APIs (REST, gRPC/Protobuf).
- Strong debugging skills and a production-first mindset.
- Familiarity with Kubernetes, Prometheus, Argo CD, and other modern infrastructure tools.
- Bonus points for experience with streaming or time-series data systems (Kafka, Flink, TimescaleDB, etc.), performance tuning and profiling at query or service layers, familiarity with observability tools (Datadog, Grafana), background in hardware or telemetry-heavy environments, and experience with performance tuning and profiling at query or service layers.
Skills
- Go, Rust, or Python.
- Linux/networking fundamentals.
- SQL and operational database experience (indexing, migrations, tuning).
- REST, gRPC/Protobuf.
- Strong debugging skills and a production-first mindset.
- Kubernetes, Prometheus, Argo CD, and other modern infrastructure tools.
- Experience with streaming or time-series data systems (Kafka, Flink, TimescaleDB, etc.).
- Performance tuning and profiling at query or service layers.
- Familiarity with observability tools (Datadog, Grafana).
- Background in hardware or telemetry-heavy environments.
Benefits
- Salary range: $200,000 - $250,000 per year.
- Plus equity and benefits.
Pay
- $200,000 - $250,000 per year.
Schedule
- Full-time.
Location
Sift’s headquarters is in Marina Del Rey, CA (Next to LAX). We collaborate in person twice a week—on Mondays and Thursdays—and come together for a full week every two months. We are open to relocating candidates to LA or working from our San Francisco office for the right candidate.
Eligibility
- U.S. Person Required: Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual such as an asylee or refugee in compliance with ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) / EAR (Export Administration Regulations) regulations.