Backend Engineer, Alarms

Verkada; San Mateo (CA); On-site; USD 125,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Visa sponsorship

Onsite Bay Area

Job summary

Verkada is seeking a Backend Engineer for the Alarms team in the Bay Area to design and scale AI‑driven detection and response workflows. You’ll work on low‑latency services that coordinate alarm detection, verification, and dispatch across Verkada’s hardware and cloud platforms.

You will collaborate with product, design, frontend, and firmware teams to deliver end‑to‑end customer experiences, joining a small, high‑impact team that values ownership, speed, and reliability.

Qualifications

• 1–3 years of backend engineering experience in a production environment.
• Solid grasp of distributed system design, API architecture, and event‑driven workflows.
• Experience with databases (e.g., Postgres) and scalable data systems (e.g., Kafka, Redis).

Responsibilities

• Design and build low‑latency, high‑availability backend services that orchestrate alarm detection and response.
• Create flexible and extensible AI‑powered workflows for intrusion and video monitoring use cases.
• Build distributed systems that integrate internal products and third‑party services (e.g., notifications, transcription, dispatch).
• Collaborate closely with product managers, designers, frontend, and firmware engineers to shape end‑to‑end customer experiences.

Skills

Backend engineering

Distributed systems

API design

Tools

Postgres

Kafka

Redis

Job description

Verkada is transforming how organizations protect their people and places with an integrated, privacy‑sensitive AI‑powered platform that includes solutions for video security, access control, air quality sensors, alarms, intercoms, and visitor management.

We’ve got serious momentum in the market: more than 30,000 customers (including 100+ of the Fortune 500), a $5.8B valuation, more than $1 billion in annualized bookings, and backing from CapitalG, Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst, Felicis Ventures, Next47 and more. Physical AI is one of the most consequential technology shifts of our time, and Verkada is at the center of it.

From retailers that use our agentic AI to deter theft before it happens, to warehouses that use AI‑powered alerts to make sure their teams are protected on the floor with proper PPE, to schools that are alerted to a threat in real‑time and trigger a lockdown in seconds, not minutes, we’re rapidly scaling this impact. Today, more than 2 million Verkada devices are deployed across 170+ countries.

About the Alarms Team

The Alarms team builds systems that detect, verify, and respond to real‑world security threats using sensors, cameras, and AI. You’ll work on products that are critical during high‑stakes moments and directly impact customer safety. We operate as a small, fast‑moving team with significant ownership, collaborating across mobile, backend, and firmware.

About the Role

Verkada’s Alarms team builds the intelligent systems that detect, verify, and respond to real‑world security threats—whether it’s a break‑in or suspicious activity caught on video. We combine intrusion sensors, cameras, and AI to create a fast, reliable, and modern security experience. As a Backend Engineer, you’ll play a key role in designing and scaling our AI‑driven detection and response workflows. These systems power automated threat identification, customer notifications, video verification, and emergency dispatch—all in real time. You’ll be joining a small high‑impact team working across Verkada’s hardware and cloud platforms to keep people and property safe.

What You'll Do

• Design and build low‑latency, high‑availability backend services that orchestrate alarm detection and response.
• Create flexible and extensible AI‑powered workflows for intrusion and video monitoring use cases.
• Build distributed systems that integrate internal products and third‑party services (e.g., notifications, transcription, dispatch).
• Collaborate closely with product managers, designers, frontend, and firmware engineers to shape end‑to‑end customer experiences.

What You Bring

• 1‑3 years of backend engineering experience in a production environment.
• Solid grasp of distributed system design, API architecture, and event‑driven workflows.
• Background working with databases (e.g., Postgres) and scalable data systems (e.g., Kafka, Redis).

Bonus Points

• Familiarity with Temporal or other workflow engines.
• Experience developing AI‑based systems capable of real‑time reasoning from video and audio inputs.
• Proficiency in software engineering best practices and documentation.

Culture and Values

• Self‑motivated problem solver: At Verkada, you will tackle large, complex problems with no clear answers.
• Teach and learn: You will learn new technologies while being entrusted with the technical ownership of major systems, and we hope to learn something from you in turn.
• Growth mindset: As a small, fast‑growing startup, every day brings new challenges and opportunities for growth, and we want you to grow with us!

Additional Information

• We sponsor and take over sponsorship of employment visas for this role. If we make you an offer, we will make every reasonable effort to get you a visa.
• This role requires working onsite 5 days per week in the Bay Area. You may be local or willing to relocate.

Annual Pay Range

$125,000 - $160,000 USD (base compensation; commissions and bonuses may apply).

As an equal opportunity employer, Verkada is committed to providing employment opportunities to all individuals. All applicants for positions at Verkada will be treated without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy, or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.