Senior Backend Software Engineer

Ketch; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 160,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Full medical/dental/vision

401(k)

Equity

Company events in San Francisco

Job summary

A tech company in San Francisco is seeking a Backend Engineer to build critical infrastructure and optimize data processing. This hybrid role involves designing Go microservices, developing APIs, and ensuring system resilience under load. Candidates should possess a strong foundation in backend systems, experience in cloud environments, and familiarity with databases. Compensation ranges from $160,000 to $220,000, with equity and comprehensive benefits.

Qualifications

• Strong foundation in Go or similar systems languages.
• Experience in cloud-native environments such as AWS, GCP, or Azure.
• Familiarity with various databases like Postgres, DynamoDB, and Redis.

Responsibilities

• Build high-performance systems for processing high-stakes data.
• Design Go microservices that handle distributed data flows.
• Own the entire lifecycle from problem understanding to deployment.

Skills

Strong backend engineering foundation in Go

Experience building APIs

Familiarity with databases

Understanding of distributed-systems fundamentals

Experience with gRPC

Comfort with Kubernetes

Interest in modern AI/data tools

Experience using AI coding assistants

Curiosity and grit

Education

CS degree or equivalent practical experience

Job description

This is backend engineering where correctness matters, latency matters, and scale is real. You'll build the infrastructure that replaces the legacy tools failing enterprises today — and you'll see your work running live on sites used by millions of people.

What You'll Work On

You'll build reliable, high-performance systems that make sense of messy, high-stakes data flowing through databases, pipelines, SaaS tools, websites, and mobile apps.

Specifically

• Design and build Go microservices that process distributed data flows and support real-time governance decisions across an organization's entire stack
• Develop clean, well-versioned APIs that orchestrate permissions, data directives, and automated actions across external systems
• Build distributed pipelines and event-driven architectures that transform structured and unstructured data and feed downstream intelligence
• Own the full lifecycle — from understanding the customer problem through design, implementation, deployment, monitoring, and iteration
• Apply resilience patterns (timeouts, retries, circuit breakers) to keep systems predictable under real-world load
• Drive performance through concurrency tuning and efficient resource usage
• Contribute to architecture decisions: service boundaries, data models, queue/stream strategy, and AI integration points
• Talk directly to customers to understand their pain points and translate requirements into scalable system designs

What Makes This Different

• You'll own real problems, not tickets. Engineers here take a customer problem and figure out how to solve it, you're not waiting for a product manager to hand you a spec. You think through the problem, define the approach, and build it.
• You'll never be bored. You won't be on the same product for three years. You'll move across problems, maybe six months on one, then a new challenge, a new product, a new domain. There's always something new to learn and build.
• Your code runs on real sites, for real users. This isn't internal tooling. You'll see your work live on major consumer-facing websites and apps, processing millions of decisions daily.
• AI assistants are part of the workflow. We use Cursor, Claude Code, Copilot, and similar tools daily. We expect engineers to leverage them and we evaluate candidates using them during interviews.
• The company is at an inflection point. We're well-positioned to take over this market. The equity upside is real, the customer list is growing fast, and the engineering team has a direct line to the company's success.

What We're Looking For

We're hiring at both mid‑level and senior levels

what matters most is that you can think through complex problems independently and ship production systems that work at scale.

• Strong backend engineering foundation in Go or similar systems languages
• Experience building APIs, distributed systems, or microservices in cloud‑native environments (AWS/GCP/Azure)
• Familiarity with databases and storage systems: Postgres, DynamoDB, ScyllaDB, Redis, Elasticsearch, or similar
• Understanding of distributed‑systems fundamentals: concurrency, queues/streams, transactions, event‑driven patterns
• Experience with gRPC, REST, and service‑to‑service communication
• Comfort with Kubernetes, containers, and operational concerns (security, networking, resource management)
• Interest in modern AI/data tools (LLM APIs, embeddings, retrieval)
• Experience using AI coding assistants (Cursor, Claude Code, Copilot, or similar) in your daily workflow
• Curiosity, grit, and a drive to figure things out without heavy direction — startup experience is a plus
• CS degree or equivalent practical experience building production systems

Language and framework experience matters less than your ability to think.

The Team

The engineering team is 15 people, entirely co‑located at our San Francisco headquarters. This in‑person collaboration drives fast iteration, direct customer interaction, and the kind of hallway conversations that make startups move. You'd report to VP of Product & Engineering.

This is a hybrid role — in‑office 3 days a week at our SF HQ (SoMa)

Compensation

$160,000 – $220,000 base salary + equity + benefits

Additional Job Application Terms

The range reflects both mid‑level and senior experience. Compensation decisions factor in skills, experience, and market conditions. Benefits include full medical/dental/vision, 401(k), and equity. Three company‑wide events per year in San Francisco.

This job is part of LinkedIn’s Full‑Service Hiring beta program. Eligibility is limited to candidates located in and performing services in the United States, excluding those based in Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, South Carolina, or West Virginia.

We’re committed to making our hiring process as smooth and timely as possible, and we understand that waiting to hear back can add to the anticipation. If you’re a potential fit, our team will reach out within two weeks to progress you to the next stage. If you don’t hear from us in that time, we encourage you to explore other opportunities with our team in the future, and we wish you the very best in your job search.