Staff Backend Engineer

The Staff Backend Engineer is a senior technical leader responsible for the long-term health and direction of our backend services. You will operate with a high degree of autonomy to identify and solve our most critical technical challenges, often in areas that are loosely defined or cross multiple domains. Unlike a Senior Engineer who masters a specific domain, you will provide the technical vision and architectural guardrails for several domains. You will be a go-to expert for other engineers, leading by example with exceptional code, robust system design, and strategic thinking that anticipates future business needs. Key Responsibilities & Deliverables: - Lead the design, development, and evolution of large-scale, high-traffic systems or company initiatives, often across multiple teams - Define the long-term technical roadmap and architectural vision for key areas of our platform, and articulate the return on investment (ROI) to engineering leaders and other departments - Decompose complex business and system problems into clear, scalable, and elegant technical designs - Act as a technical lead on cross-team projects, ensuring that architectural principles and quality standards are met - Mentor senior engineers, providing deep technical guidance and fostering their growth into future technical leaders - Represent engineering in cross-functional discussions - Drive innovation by prototyping and championing the adoption of new technologies and methodologies, including the strategic use of LLMs and AI-driven development practices - Work on foundational infrastructure and application platforms that enable other engineering teams to build sustainable products with long-term vision Key Skills: Essential: - Expert-level proficiency in Java and related frameworks and libraries - Deep knowledge of middleware services & frameworks (such as relational databases, NoSQL databases, messaging systems, etc.) and nuanced understanding of their internals - Demonstrated experience designing, building, and operating complex, distributed systems at scale - Mastery of architectural patterns, domain-driven design, and data modeling for complex systems - Proven ability to influence and lead large, complex technical projects without formal authority - Exceptional ability to navigate and resolve technical ambiguity in a fast-paced, scaleup environment - Active participation in technical guilds or communities of practice - Proficiency with cloud-native architectures, containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), GitOps, and infrastructure-as-code principles - Experience building and maintaining high-volume, high-traffic services - Comfort diving deep into open-source frameworks and libraries to understand internals and adapt for organizational needs Desirable: - Driven by a strong curiosity in AI and cutting-edge tech, hands-on experience with AI-powered tools (e.g., Cursor, Claude, GitHub Copilot) to enhance productivity and code quality - Experience presenting at internal tech talks, external meetups, or conferences - Extensive, proven track record of technical leadership and impact in a senior or staff-level engineering role at a scaling startup - Recognized as a go-to technical expert and thought leader by peers and leadership - Contributions to open-source projects - Experience in a regulated industry, such as healthcare - Master’s in computer science or equivalent field Key Success Measures: - Execution of Technical Strategy: A clear, forward-looking technical roadmap is established, understood, and actively being executed, directly leading to improvements in key business metrics - Reduction in System Complexity: A measurable reduction in the architectural complexity or defect rate of an entire domain, achieved through strategic refactoring, introduction of new platforms, or decommissioning of legacy systems - Thought Leadership in Design: Your design documents, RFCs (Requests for Comments), and technical proposals are considered models of clarity and are frequently used as references by other teams - Recognized Go-To Expert: You are the go-to engineer for others when facing the hardest technical challenges in your domain of expertise - Solving “Unsolvable” Problems: Successfully delivering solutions for complex, high-risk, or ambiguous technical challenges that were previously blockers for the team or organization - Flawless Cross-Team Execution: Leading large, cross-functional technical initiatives to successful completion with minimal friction, demonstrating an ability to align and mobilize multiple teams towards a common goal - Growth of Senior Talent: The senior engineers you formally or informally mentor show demonstrable growth, take on larger scopes of work, and are on a clear path to becoming technical leaders themselves - Elevating the Hiring Bar: Your involvement in the hiring process demonstrably helps in attracting and assessing high-quality senior and staff-level talent In essence, a Staff Engineer’s success is measured not just by what they build, but by the positive, lasting, and widespread impact they have on the technology, the people, and the business.