Senior Software Engineer

Realm; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 160,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Realm is hiring a Senior Backend Engineer in San Francisco (Hybrid) to build high-performance backend systems powering a data platform. You will tackle distributed systems, large-scale data processing, and performance-oriented infrastructure alongside a small, high-impact team.

Ideal candidates have 5+ years in backend or systems roles and are proficient in Rust, Go, or modern C++. Join a fast-moving startup that values ownership and robust, scalable architectures.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of backend or systems engineering experience.
• Strong experience with Rust, Go, or modern C++.
• Experience building high-performance backend or infrastructure systems.

Responsibilities

• Build high-performance backend systems and query engines.
• Own features from concept to production in a fast-paced startup.
• Collaborate on distributed systems at massive scale.

Skills

Backend engineering

Rust

Go

C++ (modern)

Distributed systems

Tools

AWS

Containers

IaC

Job description

Senior+ Backend Engineer (Rust / Go / Modern C++)

Location: San Francisco, CA (Hybrid)

About the Company:

Realm is partnering with an early-stage infrastructure startup building next-generation tools that enable engineering and security teams to search and analyze massive volumes of data in seconds. The platform is designed to make petabyte-scale data exploration feel instant, helping teams debug distributed systems, investigate security incidents, and analyze logs across enormous datasets. The company is rethinking how modern engineering teams query and analyze large-scale data systems. They’re a small, high-impact team tackling difficult systems challenges, and are looking for engineers who enjoy working on performance-critical infrastructure.

The Opportunity:

This is a chance to join very early and help shape the backend systems powering a high-performance data platform. You’ll work on problems such as:

• High-performance query engines and search systems
• Distributed systems operating at massive scale
• Efficient processing of large-scale log and telemetry data
• Backend systems designed for performance, reliability, and developer experience

The team values engineers who can take ownership of systems from concept through production and thrive in fast-moving environments.

What We’re Looking For:

We’re particularly interested in engineers who have experience building systems from 0→1 at early-stage companies or smaller teams.

Strong candidates typically have:

• 5+ years of backend or systems engineering experience
• Strong experience with Rust, Go, or modern C++
• Experience building high-performance backend or infrastructure systems
• Familiarity with one or more of the following:
  • Distributed systems
  • Database internals
  • Query engines or search infrastructure
  • Data pipelines or data infrastructure
  • Comfort working in fast-paced startup environments with minimal process
  • A track record of shipping and owning meaningful systems in small teams

Tech Stack

Current technologies include:

• Rust across core backend systems
• Cloud-native infrastructure (AWS)
• Object storage for large-scale datasets
• Containerized ingestion pipelines
• Infrastructure-as-code tooling

The team values engineers who are thoughtful about performance and open to improving the stack where needed.

Why This Role

Solve genuinely hard technical problems at massive scale Early ownership over core infrastructure and architecture Small, high-impact engineering team Hybrid San Francisco environment working closely with the founding team