Senior Software Engineer (Backend)

Motive; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Motive is seeking a Senior Software Engineer for the Equipment Monitoring team in Seattle. You will build backend systems that give fleets visibility into location, utilization, and health of equipment such as trailers and machinery.

You’ll design ingestion and stream-processing pipelines (Kafka, Flink) to turn sensor telemetry into real-time locations, geofence events, trips, and alerts. You will collaborate with Embedded/IoT teams on device payloads and data contracts, and build highly

Qualifications

• Experience building distributed systems and event-driven pipelines.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure or private clouds).
• 5+ years software development experience.
• Experience with relational and NoSQL databases.

Responsibilities

• Build backend systems providing visibility into equipment location, utilization, and health.
• Design and operate ingestion and stream-processing pipelines (Kafka, Flink) for real-time data.
• Collaborate with Embedded/IoT teams on device payloads and data contracts.
• Develop observable, reliable, and scalable backend services for hundreds of thousands of devices.
• Build and operate pipelines powering geo-fencing, alerts, and asset location.
• Design, build, and maintain scalable APIs for internal and external apps.
• Mentor teammates and reduce technical debt for higher code quality.

Skills

Distributed systems

Event-driven pipelines

Ownership mindset

Cloud infrastructure

Geospatial / IoT data

Ruby

Golang

Java / Kotlin

Hybrid work

Education

B.S./M.S. in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Kafka

Flink

Kinesis

PostgreSQL

DynamoDB

Redis

Cassandra

AWS

Job description

• As a Senior Software Engineer on the Equipment Monitoring team, you will build the backend systems that give fleets unmatched visibility into the location, utilization, and health of their equipment - trailers, reefers, construction machinery, and small assets
• Our data comes from IoT devices in the field: Asset Gateways, BLE environmental and door sensors, and Beacons
• You will design and operate the ingestion and stream-processing pipelines (Kafka, Flink) that turn this raw sensor telemetry into accurate real-time locations, geofence events, trips, and alerts
• You will collaborate closely with our Embedded/firmware and IoT teams on device payloads and end-to-end data flows, making this a great role for engineers who enjoy working near the hardware while building cloud services at scale
• Develop highly observable, reliable, and scalable backend services that process telemetry from hundreds of thousands of IoT devices (sensors, beacons, asset gateways)
• Build and operate stream-processing pipelines (Kafka, Flink) powering geo-fencing, alerting, trip construction, and asset location
• Design, build, and maintain scalable APIs for both internal and external applications
• Collaborate with Embedded, IoT, and cross-functional teams on device data contracts and end-to-end feature delivery
• Champion engineering excellence by proactively reducing technical debt and improving code quality
• Leverage AI tools such as Cursor, CoPilot to increase productivity and code quality
• Actively work on our AWS Cloud infrastructure, and mentor and learn from other engineers to foster a culture of continuous growth

• Experience building distributed systems and event-driven/stream-processing pipelines (Kafka, Flink, Kinesis or similar)
• B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science or related field
• Ownership and Problem Solving mindset
• Experience building for Cloud Infrastructure such as AWS, GCP, Azure or private clouds
• 5+ years software development experience
• Experience with Relational and NoSQL databases such as PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, Redis, and Cassandra
• Experience in modern programming languages. Proficiency in Ruby, Golang, Kotlin/Java is a plus
• Hybrid in the office two days a week
• Experience with IoT/sensor data or geospatial systems (geofencing, location) is a plus