Senior Backend Software Engineer

Roboticsconnected; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 167,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/dental/vision insurance

401(k)

HSA

Paid time off

Parental leave

Life and disability insurance

Pet insurance

Job summary

Otter is scaling its Marketing/Boost platform to automate restaurant growth across delivery platforms. You will build backend services for budgeting, campaigns, and cross-platform orchestration, and develop an AI-driven Boost engine that selects the best marketing for each storefront within budget.

The role emphasizes ownership of end-to-end services, reliability, and a production-oriented mindset, with opportunities to work across platforms and with external APIs.

Qualifications

• Experience building backend services for complex systems.
• Strong knowledge of distributed systems and API design (gRPC/REST).
• Experience with PostgreSQL, CockroachDB and writing performant queries.
• Proven ability to operate services in production with reliability in mind.
• Collaborative, product-minded approach to delivery.

Responsibilities

• Build backend services for campaign management, budgeting, and multi-channel orchestration across platforms.
• Develop AI-driven Boost engine to optimize marketing for each storefront within budget.
• Create durable workflows for campaign orchestration with auto-pause guardrails.
• Integrate with third-party delivery platforms and handle API reliability issues.
• Own services end-to-end: develop, instrument, debug, and improve reliability.

Skills

Backend development

Distributed systems

APIs (gRPC/REST)

Production operations

Collaboration

Tools

PostgreSQL

CockroachDB

REST/gRPC

Docker/Kubernetes

Job description

Who we are

In the past, to be a successful restaurateur, you simply had to have a passion for food and a passion for people - but to succeed as a digital restaurateur you also need to have a passion for technology. We believe in the joy of serving others, and that's why we created Otter – to help restaurateurs succeed in online food delivery. Restaurants around the world, both large and small, including Chick-fil-A, Ben & Jerry’s, KFC, and Eataly trust our software to power their delivery business. We increase sales, reduce order issues, and decrease delivery headaches.

What you’ll do

As a Software Engineer on the Otter Marketing/Boost team, you’ll build the AI-powered platform that puts restaurant growth on autopilot, automating marketing for each storefront across delivery platforms. Your code will turn a merchant’s budget and goals into real orders.

• Build backend services for campaign management, budgeting, and a multi-channel pipeline that deploys campaigns and keeps them in sync across delivery platforms.
• Develop the AI-driven Boost engine that analyzes each store, picks the best marketing for its goal, executes within budget, and recalibrates automatically.
• Build durable workflows for campaign orchestration, budget enforcement, and auto-pause guardrails that run correctly, every day, at scale.
• Integrate with third-party delivery platforms and handle the realities of external APIs: partial failures, retries, and reconciliation.
• Own your services end-to-end: develop, instrument, debug, and improve reliability and performance.

What we’re looking for

We value diversity of experience and are looking for engineers excited to own complex, high-impact systems. We look for a strong sense of ownership, people ready to take their work from idea to production and take responsibility for outcomes.

Basic Qualifications

• Proficiency in a general-purpose backend language (e.g., Java, Go, or Python).
• Solid foundation in distributed systems, microservices, and API design (gRPC and/or REST).
• Experience with databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, CockroachDB) and writing performant queries.
• Strong debugging skills and an instinct for reliability in systems that integrate with unpredictable third parties.
• Experience operating services in production, and a collaborative, product-minded approach.

Nice to Have

• Workflow orchestration (e.g., Temporal, Cadence) or event-driven architectures (Kafka).
• Large-scale data and analytics tooling (Trino, Flink, Iceberg, or equivalent).
• ML systems in production, predictions, ranking, or optimization, or a strong interest in them.
• Cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP) and containers (Docker, Kubernetes)

Why join us

• Demand for online food delivery is growing really fast! In the last 5 years, just in the US, the overall market has expanded 10X from $10B to $100B, and could expand to $500bn- $1T by 2030.
• Changing the restaurant industry: You’ll be part of a team that helps restaurants succeed in online food delivery.
• Collaborative environment: You will receive support and guidance from experienced colleagues and managers, helping you to learn, grow and achieve your goals, and you’ll work closely with other teams to ensure our customer’s success.

What else you need to know

This role is based in our Seattle office location. As a company driven by innovation and continuous change, close collaboration is essential. We’re constantly reimagining our industry, creating new products and refining our processes, and we do our best work together. That’s why all of our office-based teams work onsite, five days a week.

The base salary range for this role is $167,000 - $230,000 per year.

Actual compensation will be determined on an individual basis and may vary depending on experience, skills, and qualifications.

Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package. You may also be eligible for equity awards and an annual performance-based bonus.

Benefits Summary (USA Full-Time Exempt Employees):

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance (multiple plans, incl. HSA options).
• Company-paid life and disability insurance (short- and long-term).
• Voluntary insurance: accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity.
• Optional supplemental life insurance for self, spouse, and children.
• Pet insurance discount.
• 401(k).
• Health Savings Account (HSA)
• Flexible Spending Accounts (Healthcare, Dependent Care, Commuter)
• Time Off policies:
• Discretionary vacation days
• 8 paid holidays per year
• Paid sick time
• Paid Bereavement leave
• Paid Parental Leave

Benefits are subject to change at the company's discretion.

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