Staff Backend Software Engineer (Commerce Platform)

Ro; York and North Yorkshire; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

Equity

Flexible time off

Parental leave

Flexible work arrangement

Snacks & lunches

Gym stipend

Learning stipend

Job summary

Ro is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to shape the Commerce Platform, acting as a technical leader, mentor, and architect. You will drive distributed backend systems using Python and FastAPI, focusing on payments, pricing, and invoicing, while mentoring engineers and aligning cross-functional teams.

You will collaborate with product managers, designers, and engineers to ensure scalable, reliable delivery, define SLIs/SLOs, and participate in on-call rotations to uphold service quality.

Qualifications

• 7-10+ years backend software development experience

Responsibilities

• Lead technical roadmaps balancing product needs with long-term stability and maintainability

Skills

Distributed systems

Technical leadership

Mentoring

Cross-functional collaboration

On-call readiness

Performance tuning

Observability

Architecture & design

Python

FastAPI

Tools

FastAPI

Django

Python

Datadog

Relational databases

APIs

Job description

• We are looking for a Staff Software Engineer to join the Commerce Platform team at Ro. In this role, you will operate as a technical leader, mentor, and architect — helping shape the future of our platform and driving the delivery of financial systems that power how healthcare is accessed and sustained
• You will partner closely with other engineers, product managers, designers, and cross-functional leads to define and deliver technical roadmaps that balance immediate product needs with long-term technical stability, scalability, and maintainability
• As a Staff Engineer, you will not only design and build robust distributed systems but also mentor engineers, influence engineering culture, and play a key role in technical decision-making
• Build robust, and scalable backend capabilities using Python and FastAPI, supporting critical commerce domains like payments, pricing, and invoicing
• Lead cross-functional technical efforts — collaborating closely with product managers, designers, and engineers from adjacent teams to ensure alignment and technical integrity across boundaries
• Drive engineering excellence through best practices in testing, monitoring, observability, and performance optimization
• Define and maintain SLIs/SLOs in collaboration with product, infra and other development teams
• Participate in on-call rotations to ensure reliability of commerce systems

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision membership
• Equity for all team members
• Flexible time off
• Paid parental leave, and flexible work arrangement
• Well-stocked office with snacks and bi-weekly free lunches
• Gym, learning, and development stipends

If you thrive in complex problem spaces, enjoy shaping technical direction at scale, and are motivated by the opportunity to improve healthcare through technology, we’d love to hear from youA sharp focus on quality and risk—you move with urgency while safeguarding against issues like double charges, misbilling, or inconsistent payment statesDeep understanding of distributed systems—data consistency, communication patterns, and service boundaries—backed by hands-on experience building and maintaining high-traffic production systemsProven experience building and maintaining high-scale backend systems, ideally in commerce, fintech, or healthcare settings7 - 10+ years professional backend software development experienceExcellent communication skills and the ability to lead cross-functional technical projectsProficient in Python (preferred - we have some language flexibility!), relational databases, and frameworks like Django or FastAPI, with hands-on experience in metrics instrumentation and data-driven performance tuning using tools like DatadogDeep familiarity with breaking down monolithic systems into well-defined domainsExperience in telehealth or other highly regulated industries