Senior Software Backend Engineer (Market Pricing)

Pave; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 167,000 - 225,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive medical, dental, vision

Flexible PTO

Equity

Job summary

Pave is seeking a senior backend engineer to build scalable systems for our compensation platform. You’ll own major components from idea to production, collaborating with product and customer teams to deliver enterprise-ready features.

The role emphasizes performance, reliability, and mentorship, with equity and flexible PTO. This is a hybrid role based in New York with opportunities to work remotely and ship high-impact solutions.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of backend engineering experience.
• Strong system design and performance focus.
• Empathy for compensation teams and pricing workflows.
• Ability to break complex problems into milestones.
• Influence design decisions and mentor teammates.

Responsibilities

• Propose and implement scalable systems for customers.
• Partner with stakeholders to turn ideas into enterprise-ready features.
• Own all phases of the development lifecycle from customer conversation to post-release monitoring.
• Set technical direction across projects and raise the bar for the team.
• Mentor engineers and drive cross-team alignment.

Skills

Backend engineering

System design

Performance optimization

Mentoring engineers

Cross-functional collaboration

Job description

At Pave, we’re building the industry’s leading compensation platform, combining the world’s largest real-time compensation dataset with deep expertise in AI and machine learning. Our platform is perfecting the art and science of pay to give 8,500+ companies unparalleled confidence in every compensation decision. Top tier companies like OpenAI, McDonald’s, Instacart, Atlassian, Synopsys, Stripe, Databricks, and Waymo use Pave, transforming every pay decision into a competitive advantage. $190+ billion in total compensation spend is managed in our workflows, and 80% of Forbes AI 50 use Pave to benchmark compensation. The future of pay is real-time & predictive, and we’re making it happen right now. We’ve raised $160M in funding from leading investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Y Combinator, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Craft Ventures. The Market Pricing Team @ Pave Compensation decisions get made every day with far less data than they deserve. Market Pricing empowers teams to price jobs in hours instead of months, with more data, build competitive pay ranges, and understand exactly how those decisions land across their organization. Getting this right means companies can stay competitive and retain their best talent.

What You’ll Do

• Propose and implement scalable systems for our most sophisticated customers
• Partner with stakeholders to take ambiguous problems from an idea to a shipped, enterprise-ready feature
• Own all phases of the development lifecycle, from a conversation with a customer to post-release monitoring
• Set technical direction across projects, mentor engineers, and raise the bar on how the team build

What You’ll Bring

• 5+ years of backend engineering experience
• A strong eye for performance, reliability, and robust systems design
• You have empathy for compensation teams and understand the challenges involved in pricing an employees’ pay
• You have strong judgement when operating in the unknown; weighing all of the tradeoffs when there is no “correct” answer
• Proven ability to break ambiguous, complex problems into concrete milestones with clear success metrics and drive them to completion with minimal oversight
• You influence design decisions across the team, mentor other engineers, and bring people along through clear reasoning
• You thrive in fast-paced environments and ship thoughtful solutions without over-engineering

Compensation, It’s What We Do. At Pave, we believe compensation should be as thoughtful as the people we hire. This role is structured as a B2B contract engagement — and your total rewards package includes meaningful equity, flexible PTO, and region-specific benefits designed around your life, not just your role. Your level and compensation are determined by your experience and how you show up throughout the interview process. We’re always happy to walk you through how we think about leveling — just ask. Targeted cash compensation for this role: P4 $166,600 - $225,400

Benefits @ Pave

• Your Health, Fully Covered: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage for you and your family, with a range of options designed to meet you where you are.
• Time That’s Actually Yours: Flexible PTO and the freedom to work from anywhere in the world for up to a month — because life doesn’t pause, and neither should you.
• Fuel for the Work: Lunch and dinner stipends plus fully stocked kitchens, so you can stay energized without thinking twice about it.
• Room to Keep Growing: A quarterly education stipend to invest in the skills and knowledge that matter most to you.
• Support When It Matters Most: Robust parental leave so you can be fully present for the moments that count.
• Getting Here, Made Easier: A commuter stipend to support the in-person collaboration that makes great work happen.

Life @ Pave

Founded in 2019 with a clear purpose and a team that has never wavered from it, Pave has grown into a global force in compensation management — giving thousands of companies the tools to take control, build confidence, and earn credibility in every pay decision they make. And we’re just getting started. Headquartered in San Francisco’s Financial District, with regional hubs in New York City’s Flatiron District, Salt Lake City, Kraków (Poland), and the United Kingdom — wherever you’re based, you’ll find the same thing: people who genuinely care about the work, each other, and the customers that rely on Pave. We run a hybrid culture that brings teams together in person 3 to 4 days a week — and every Friday, the whole company gathers for our Team Sync: breakfast, new hire welcomes, product updates, fireside chats, and yes, the occasional Kahoot.

Values

• Be Intellectually Honest — Truth over comfort. We face reality clearly and speak directly, even when it’s hard.
• Play to Win — We’re not here to participate. We’re here to be the #1 compensation platform in the world, and we act like it.
• Uphold the Pave Platinum Standard — We hold ourselves to the highest bar — for our customers, our data, and each other.
• One Team — We win and lose together. Titles don’t drive decisions here — shared goals do.
• Hug of Jawn — Hard to define, impossible to miss.

Our Vision

Unlock a labor market built on trust.

Our Mission

Build confidence in every compensation decision.

If you’re ready to help shape the future of compensation alongside people who are smart, humble, and genuinely motivated by the problem we’re solving, we’d love to meet you.