Senior/Staff Backend Software Engineer

GridCARE; Redwood City (CA); On-site; USD 184,000 - 284,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Performance bonus

Equity

Health, dental, vision coverage

Lunch provided three days a week

Hybrid work schedule

Access to academic/industry partners

Mission-driven team

Job summary

GridCARE seeks a senior to staff backend engineer to own the architecture of a cloud-native data-center platform powering top AI compute providers.

You will design real-time systems, ensure reliability and security, and ship production-grade services across collaboration with data scientists, power systems engineers, and DevOps teams. The role emphasizes depth in backend engineering and scalable infrastructure in a startup setting.

Qualifications

• Experience architecting, implementing, and operating cloud-native backends that are highly available, reliable, secure, and scalable.
• Strong software architecture, distributed systems, concurrency, and security fundamentals.
• Proficiency in at least one backend language, e.g., Python.

Responsibilities

• Build a cloud-native backend platform that is reliable, real-time, scalable, and secure.
• Lead architecture decisions focused on scalability, fault tolerance, and security for on-premises deployments.
• Collaborate with data scientists, power systems engineers, and DevOps teams to deploy production-grade solutions.

Skills

Backend engineering

Real-time systems

Cloud-native

Software architecture

Python

REST/gRPC

Distributed systems

CI/CD

Docker

Kubernetes

Security fundamentals

Collaboration

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

CI/CD pipelines

Deployment automation

Production operations

Job description

About Us

GridCARE is a leading venture-backed startup solving the most critical constraint in AI’s growth trajectory: immediate access to power. As demand for computing skyrockets, access to energy has become the defining bottleneck in the AI infrastructure race. While leading tech companies invest billions in speculative, long-term solutions that may take decades to arrive, GridCARE’s pioneering physics-based generative AI platform unlocks gigawatts of hidden capacity in today’s electric grid — enabling hyperscalers, data center developers, and utilities to power AI infrastructure years sooner than conventional approaches and without costly upgrades.Founded at Stanford’s Doerr School of Sustainability and backed by leading climate-tech and deep-tech investors, GridCARE has assembled a world-class team spanning power systems, AI, and infrastructure.At GridCARE, you will:

• Work at the intersection of AI, energy, and infrastructure — the foundation of the next industrial revolution.
• Partner with hyperscalers, developers, and utilities on high-impact, real-world deployments.
• Help shape a more abundant, efficient, and resilient energy future for the digital era.
• Join a company defining a new category — capacity acceleration for AI.
• Receive competitive compensation, equity, and benefits in a fast-growth, mission-driven environment.

Job Description

We're looking for a product engineer with infrastructure instincts and a platform mindset. You'll build a cloud-based system that manages and operates data centers for some of the largest AI compute providers in the world, the kind of infrastructure that powers the leading cloud and chip companies driving the AI boom. You'll be the one owning the architecture, the decisions, and how it runs in production. Reliability isn't optional. When it's live, it has to stay live, stay accurate, and update safely without ever putting a customer's infrastructure at risk. While the role is open to engineers at different stages of their career, it is best suited for an experienced Senior to Staff-level engineer who can independently architect, build, and operate mission-critical backend systems in production. What matters most is depth: real experience in architecting, implementing, tuning, and debugging real time systems that have to run reliably in production, and genuine curiosity about growing that depth into broader platform and infrastructure ownership as GridCARE scales. We're hiring for talent and fit over a specific title, industry background, or years of experience, and will calibrate the final level and scope to the individual.

Responsibilities

Build a cloud native backend platform that is reliable, real time, scalable, and secure, including:

• Time series data storage and retrieval
• Real time streaming and event processing
• Integrations with simulation, forecasting, optimization, and market modules
• Design for continuous deployment and safe updates to live, mission critical infrastructure, so systems keep running without disruption or unexpected side effects.
• Lead code quality and engineering excellence: automated testing, continuous deployment, CI/CD pipeline development, performance tuning, and system observability.
• Own architecture decisions with a focus on scalability, fault tolerance, cybersecurity, and suitability for on premises control center deployments.
• Collaborate across disciplines, working alongside data scientists, power systems engineers, and DevOps teams to bring AI driven solutions from prototype to production in mission critical environments.
• Own services end to end, from design through deployment and ongoing operation.

Qualifications

Required

• Experience architecting, implementing, and operating cloud native, real time backend systems that are highly available, reliable, secure, and scalable.
• Strong software architecture, distributed systems, concurrency, and security fundamentals.
• Proficiency in at least one backend language, e.g., Python.
• Strong experience with REST/gRPC API design and event-driven architectures.
• Experience with time series data, real time streaming, and databases across relational and non relational systems (e.g., Kafka, MQTT, TimescaleDB, or similar).
• Hands-on experience with containerization (Docker), orchestration (Kubernetes), CI/CD pipelines, deployment automation, and production operations.
• Experience with AI assisted development tools such as Cursor, CodeRabbit, Claude, GitHub Copilot, or similar.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills, comfortable prioritizing and working cross functionally in a startup environment with limited guidance and evolving requirements.

Preferred

• Someone who's passionate about making a real difference in the world.
• An entrepreneurial self starter with a focus on scalable, secure, and maintainable solutions.
• Background in energy, climate tech, power systems, or other complex infrastructure domains, including grid operations.
• Experience with industrial telemetry systems such as SCADA or Ignition.

Location

Redwood City, CA

What We Offer

• Competitive salary, performance bonus, and equity.
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage.
• Lunch is provided three days a week in the office.
• Hybrid schedule: 3 days in office for collaboration, 2 days remote for focused work.
• Access to leading academic, industry, and government partners in the AI-energy ecosystem.
• A mission-driven team focused on shaping the future of the energy transition.

Salary Range

$184,000 - $284,000

Join us in tackling one of the most important infrastructure challenges of our time — enabling the energy foundation for the age of AI.