Staff Engineer

ThoughtSpot; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 4,500,000 - 7,000,000; Full time

Job summary

The Staff Engineer (Backend) role at ThoughtSpot leads the design and evolution of scalable backend systems that power our metadata management, authentication, and core workflows. You will guide architectural decisions, drive platform capabilities, and mentor engineers across teams to raise the engineering bar.

In a hands-on, production-first environment, you will champion observability, reliability, and high availability while shaping multi-tenant and distributed services for ThoughtSpot’s

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience building and operating large-scale backend and distributed systems.
• Expert-level proficiency in Java (Spring Boot) or Go, with a strong understanding of JVM internals or Go concurrency patterns.
• Strong foundation in distributed systems concepts, including CAP theorem, consistency models, scalability, and fault tolerance.
• Hands-on experience designing event-driven architectures using Kafka or similar messaging systems.
• Experience working with high-performance databases such as PostgreSQL, NoSQL databases, and caching technologies like Redis.
• Practical experience with modern infrastructure technologies including Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud platforms.
• Deep understanding of system design, performance optimization, and reliability engineering.
• Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills with the ability to operate effectively in complex production environments.
• Production-first mindset with a focus on observability, telemetry, tracing, and operational excellence.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to influence technical decisions across teams.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and optimize mission-critical backend services and APIs that power metadata management, authentication, authorization, and core application workflows.
• Drive the architecture and development of foundational platform capabilities that support ThoughtSpot’s Search & AI ecosystem.
• Build and scale enterprise-grade features such as multi-tenancy, workload isolation, and high-scale platform services.
• Design solutions to support large-scale distributed systems while maintaining performance, reliability, and security.
• Own services throughout their lifecycle, from development and deployment to monitoring and production operations.
• Optimize systems for high throughput, low latency, efficient resource utilization, and high availability.
• Establish and promote best practices for observability, monitoring, tracing, and operational excellence.
• Proactively identify, troubleshoot, and resolve production issues before they impact customers.
• Collaborate with engineers and cross-functional stakeholders to influence platform strategy and technical direction.
• Mentor team members and contribute to raising the engineering bar across the organization.

Skills

Java (Spring Boot)

Go

Distributed systems

Kafka

PostgreSQL

NoSQL databases

Redis

Docker

Kubernetes

Cloud platforms

System design

Observability & Telemetry

Troubleshooting

Collaboration & mentoring

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

PostgreSQL

Redis

Cloud platforms

NoSQL databases

Job description

The Role

The Core App Services team is the backbone of ThoughtSpot’s Search & AI engine. We build the application platform that powers authentication, authorization, metadata management, search infrastructure, and other foundational services across our global SaaS ecosystem.

As a Staff Engineer (Backend), you will play a key leadership role in solving some of our most complex engineering challenges. This is not a feature-focused development role; you will help define and build the scalable patterns and platforms that power services across ThoughtSpot. You will take ownership of critical backend systems and ensure they remain resilient, secure, and highly scalable as we continue to evolve our cloud-native architecture.

What You’ll Do

• Design, build, and optimize mission-critical backend services and APIs that power metadata management, authentication, authorization, and core application workflows.
• Drive the architecture and development of foundational platform capabilities that support ThoughtSpot’s Search & AI ecosystem.
• Build and scale enterprise-grade features such as multi-tenancy, workload isolation, and high-scale platform services.
• Design solutions to support large-scale distributed systems while maintaining performance, reliability, and security.
• Own services throughout their lifecycle, from development and deployment to monitoring and production operations.
• Optimize systems for high throughput, low latency, efficient resource utilization, and high availability.
• Establish and promote best practices for observability, monitoring, tracing, and operational excellence.
• Proactively identify, troubleshoot, and resolve production issues before they impact customers.
• Collaborate with engineers and cross-functional stakeholders to influence platform strategy and technical direction.
• Mentor team members and contribute to raising the engineering bar across the organization.

What You Bring

• 8+ years of experience building and operating large-scale backend and distributed systems.
• Expert-level proficiency in Java (Spring Boot) or Go, with a strong understanding of JVM internals or Go concurrency patterns.
• Strong foundation in distributed systems concepts, including CAP theorem, consistency models, scalability, and fault tolerance.
• Hands‑on experience designing event‑driven architectures using Kafka or similar messaging systems.
• Experience working with high-performance databases such as PostgreSQL, NoSQL databases, and caching technologies like Redis.
• Practical experience with modern infrastructure technologies including Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud platforms.
• Deep understanding of system design, performance optimization, and reliability engineering.
• Strong troubleshooting and problem‑solving skills with the ability to operate effectively in complex production environments.
• Production‑first mindset with a focus on observability, telemetry, tracing, and operational excellence.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to influence technical decisions across teams.

In-Office at ThoughtSpot

Spotters are expected in-office 3+ days per week to be part of the energy of their local team. Momentum compounds when we're in the room together with faster decisions, sharper problem-solving, and the kind of peer learning that doesn't happen over a screen. Being in-office is our default way of working, with flexibility available where it's genuinely needed.

About ThoughtSpot

The world’s most innovative companies turn to ThoughtSpot’s AI‑Powered Analytics to put data in the hands of everyone, from the C‑suite to the frontline. With simple, natural language search and AI, anyone can ask questions, discover insights, and act with confidence. Unlike legacy tools that sacrifice performance for complexity, ThoughtSpot is intuitively designed for every business user while being built to handle the most complex, large‑scale data, wherever it resides. This unique combination of speed and simplicity is why enterprise leaders trust ThoughtSpot to transform decision‑making into a truly data‑driven culture.

At ThoughtSpot, we’re a curious, data‑driven bunch. We believe the world works better when everyone has access to facts. That’s why we build products that make asking and answering data questions as natural as having a conversation.

Mandatory and Required Skills for All ThoughtSpot Roles

Spotters are expected to demonstrate AI literacy and workflow integration to include to ability to:

• Comfortably and confidently integrate artificial intelligence into their daily workflow to increase productivity and quality.
• Hands‑on experience to leverage AI tools (industry‑leading LLMs) to increase productivity, automate routine tasks, and improve work quality.
• Speak to the experience of using AI for research, content creation, and document summarization while maintaining ownership of judgment and final decisions.
• Write effective prompts to get the most accurate and creative results from AI tools.

Spotters are expected to exemplify these key traits and AI Mindset:

• Curiosity in exploring new AI tools
• Adaptability to quickly learn and implement new, emerging AI technologies
• Critical thinking to know when to identify when AI should be used versus when human judgement is necessary

This combination of curiosity, adaptability, and discernment defines the AI mindset, and it’s required for every role at ThoughtSpot.

AI Mindset for All Spotters

At ThoughtSpot, we believe AI is a necessary and essential part of how we work. Every role, across every team, is expected to be fluent and comfortable with using AI to do their best work.

All Spotters are expected to experiment with ThoughtSpot’s AI tools (like Spotter and SpotterViz) and leading industry LLMs to streamline workflows, enhance output, and uncover new insights. Whether drafting content, analyzing data, or summarizing documents, AI is a daily partner. We value curiosity, openness to learning, and thoughtful application of AI to create real value. Training and resources are provided so every Spotter can confidently create with AI.

ThoughtSpot for All

At ThoughtSpot, diverse teams build better products. Complex data problems need many perspectives, not just one. We welcome different backgrounds, identities, and experiences, and we work to create a place where everyone can be themselves and do their best work.

What Makes ThoughtSpot a Great Place to Work?

ThoughtSpot is the Agentic Analytics Platform that empowers every enterprise to transform insights into action, on a mission to make the world more fact driven. We hire people with unique identities, backgrounds, and perspectives - this balance‑for‑the‑better philosophy is key to our success. When paired with our culture of Trust, Customer Obsession, Innovation and Intensity, ThoughtSpot cultivates a respectful culture that pushes norms to create world‑class products.