Staff Backend Engineer – Communication Team

Halter; Auckland; On-site; NZD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Snack & drinks

Health insurance

Parental leave

Self-development budget

Wellness leave

Employee stock ownership plan

Job summary

Halter is seeking a seasoned backend engineer to design and build fault-tolerant, scalable systems that process millions of real-time messages from cattle collars and towers. You will scale infrastructure for rapid device growth and global expansion, using AWS-native tools like Kinesis and SNS/SQS.

You will continuously improve reliability, observability, and fault-tolerance across our messaging stack while mentoring teammates and leading major technical projects.

Qualifications

• Seasoned backend engineer with distributed-systems experience.
• Experience with modern cloud infrastructure and scalable services.
• Ability to use data to drive decisions and debugging skills.

Responsibilities

• Designing and building fault-tolerant systems handling real-time messages.
• Scale infrastructure for rapid device growth and global expansion using AWS tools.
• Improve reliability, observability and fault-tolerance across messaging and network stack.
• Lead troubleshooting of cross-functional issues with firmware, hardware, and product teams.
• Own and lead technical projects from scoping to communication of progress and blockers.
• Build reliable automation for zero-touch deployments of collars and towers.
• Mentor teammates and guide technical direction as the system evolves.

Skills

Backend engineering

Distributed systems

Cloud computing

Data-driven decisions

Growth mindset

Tools

AWS

Kinesis

SNS/SQS

Terraform

MQTT

TCP/IP

Job description

About Halter

At Halter, we’re on a mission to enable farmers and graziers to run the most productive and sustainable operations. Our customers are using Halter to break free from the time-intensive constraints of conventional practices. Imagine watching 500 cattle stand up and walk calmly towards their next break? No quad bikes, no dogs, no fences. Just a group of cattle walking at their own pace. People say it looks like magic. Our customers are revolutionizing grazing with Halter. It's changing lives and transforming an industry. People join Halter to do meaningful work. By joining us you’ll be solving challenging problems within a talented team and a culture built for high performance. Our team out-think, out-work and out-care. We’re committed to delivering real change in the world - this isn’t easy, and in truth, we love that it’s hard.

We’re backed to deliver on a mission that matters by Tier 1 investors including Founders Fund, Bessemer Venture Partners, BOND, DCVC, Blackbird, Promus Ventures, Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck and Icehouse ventures.

To find out more, visit our LinkedIn & Instagram.

At Halter, we know how much farmers care - for their animals and their pasture. But the tools they rely on haven’t kept up, and we’re on a mission to change that. Halter helps farmers make smarter decisions - fast. We reckon good pasture management is the key to more productive and sustainable farms. More grass. Healthier soil. Happier animals. And more time back for the people doing the work.

What you'll do

• Designing and building fault-tolerant systems that handle millions of real-time messages from collars and towers

• Scaling infrastructure to support rapid device growth and global expansion, using AWS-native tools like Kinesis, SNS/SQS, and more

• Continuously improving reliability, observability, and fault-tolerance across our messaging and network stack

• Lead troubleshooting complex, cross-functional issues — partnering with firmware, hardware, and product teams to root-cause and resolve tricky bugs

• Owning and leading technical projects — scoping out work, designing specs, distributing tasks across the team, and clearly communicating progress, blockers, and decisions

• Building highly reliable automation to make our collar & tower deployments zero touch and a pleasure for the customer

• Mentoring teammates and helping guide technical direction as we evolve our protocols and infrastructure at scale

You’ll be great if you:

• A seasoned backend engineer who’s scaled distributed systems in production

• Preferably fluent in AWS, or experience with other modern cloud infrastructure

• Familiar with tools like Terraform, load testing frameworks, and chaos engineering practices

• Comfortable working with messaging protocols like MQTT, TCP/IP, and cloud-native messaging systems (e.g., Kinesis, SNS/SQS)

• Strong debugging skills and a deep understanding of system behaviour, who uses data to drive their decision-making

• Comfortable owning high-uptime systems — because cows don’t take days off.

• A growth-mindset teammate who enjoys collaboration, feedback, and moving fast

• Previous experience with LoRa is a huge bonus!

Our Benefits

• Delicious snacks and drinks are available for your daily flow.

• Healthy body, healthy mind. We’re partnered with Southern Cross Health Insurance to support your well-being.

• We offer 6 months of fully paid parental leave for primary caregivers, 4 weeks of fully paid secondary caregiver leave and many other parental benefits that support you and your family.

• Our personal growth is important. Halter offers an annual $1000 self-development budget to be used for anything that fuels personal growth.

• Our time to recharge is valued, we’re offered wellness leave and unlimited paid annual leave.

• Importantly, we offer an inclusive and attractive remuneration package made up of salary, benefits and an employee stock ownership plan.

Our Office First Approach

There’s a reason you visit your friends in person, live with your family and don’t do dinners over Zoom. Humans are wired for connection. We believe a world-class, in‑person office culture is the best way for high‑performing teams. Being office first is a core pillar of our culture. We believe in‑person connections are key to driving your own growth, learning, impact, and building genuine long‑lasting relationships. Strong relationships make it easier to disagree, give feedback, and do meaningful and aligned work. We don’t like having heaps of rules or policies, but this means having strong, trusted relationships is critical. We’re office first, not office only. This means working from the office everyday is our default setting, but we flex when we need to. We have a high‑trust culture, so everyone is trusted to do what’s best for Halter. Our office vibe is something special, it’s hard to describe until you’re here, but people at Halter who have come from fully remote or hybrid companies say they could never go back — the high energy and spectacular people they are now surrounded by everyday makes work so enjoyable. Your growth, your learning and your impact is truly unlimited here, and a big part of that comes from being together solving problems, innovating, building context, and constantly learning from each other.

Join our team

Halter is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive workplace — a place where we can each be ourselves and do the best work of our lives. Research shows that while men apply to jobs when they meet an average of 60% of the requirements, women and under‑represented groups of candidates tend to only apply when they meet every requirement. If you think you have what it takes but don’t necessarily tick every requirement on this job description, please still get in touch and apply to Halter. We’d love to chat to see if you’ll be an epic fit!

Why our team loves working at Halter:

• Work that genuinely matters. Every now and again a company comes along that transforms an entire industry and leaves the world in a better place. Our team gets to be part of something truly meaningful, helping farmers improve their livelihoods, spend more time with their families, and build more sustainable operations.

• Spectacular people solving hard problems. Our culture is designed for talented people to do work that changes lives. The team is filled with diverse, kind, and driven people who push each other to do their best work. You'll be thrown into the deep end, tackling complex challenges and building something tangible that solves real problems.

• You’ll grow here. Autonomy, mastery, and learning define how we work. You'll have the freedom to work on interesting problems, master new skills, and continuously develop yourself, both through your role and our $1,000 personal growth fund.

• This isn’t easy, and we love that it’s hard. Working at Halter will be the most rewarding and the most challenging work of your life. We move fast, take bold bets, and work hard to reshape an entire industry. As one team member put it: “Joining Halter is a bit like strapping yourself to a rocket ship, but it’s an epic journey to be a part of!”