Senior Staff Engineer (Backend) Core Services Eng

Uber; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 267,000 - 297,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus program

Equity award

401(k) plan

In-office collaboration

Job summary

Uber is seeking a Senior Staff Backend Engineer in Sunnyvale, CA to help shape core platform infrastructure across products including UberX, Eats, and more.

You'll design high-scale, distributed systems, define architectural standards, and lead cross-team initiatives to deliver reliable, zero-downtime services. Strong experience in Go/Java/C++ or Python is preferred, with a focus on performance and availability.

Qualifications

• 10+ years building high-throughput backend services and distributed systems.
• Master’s or Bachelor’s degree in CS, Engineering, Mathematics, or related field.
• Experience with caching, event-driven patterns, database optimization, and high availability.

Responsibilities

• Shape multi-year technical roadmap and architectural vision for Core Services.
• Design robust, highly available backend solutions for efficiency and reliability.
• Set architectural guidelines and uplift engineering talent across the org.
• End-to-end platform systems from design to zero-downtime rollouts across teams.

Skills

Distributed systems

Backend engineering

High concurrency

Go

Java

C++

Python

Education

Master’s or Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Engineering

Tools

Kafka

gRPC/REST

Cloud/Orchestration

Job description

We are looking for an experienced Senior Staff Backend Engineer to join the Core Services engineering organization. Core Services is Uber's shared engineering platform — the foundation that every Uber product is built on. Identity, Payments, Risk, Communications, Safety, FinTech, and more. They are the most technically ambitious systems at Uber, operating at a scale and complexity few engineers ever encounter.

When you join Core Services, you don't build for one team. You build the infrastructure every team depends on. A reliability improvement you ship today propagates across UberX, Uber for Teens, Eats, Freight, and every other product — simultaneously.

About the Role

We are seeking a seasoned Senior Staff Backend Engineer to join the Core Services Eng org, focusing on high-scale distributed systems, resilient platform architecture, and foundational service infrastructure. Core Services is central to Uber’s mission of providing fast, reliable, and scalable digital experiences. We focus on establishing industry-leading architectural standards, building shared backend platform components, and guaranteeing business continuity under extreme traffic demands. Our commitment to platform reliability and engineering excellence is essential to maintaining system stability for everyone who relies on Uber.

What You'll Do

• Work with product, platform, and engineering leadership to shape the multi-year technical roadmap, system abstractions, and architectural vision for the Core Services org.
• Leverage deep algorithmic and distributed systems knowledge to design robust, highly available backend solutions that drive system efficiency and business reliability.
• Shape backend engineering culture, set org-wide architectural guidelines, and uplevel engineering talent across the organization.
• Be responsible for end-to‑end platform systems—from architectural design and high-concurrency microservices to load testing, observability, and zero‑downtime production rollouts. Work across teams to productionize mission‑critical platform solutions at scale.

Basic Qualifications

• 10+ years of industry experience architecting, building, and operating high‑throughput backend services and distributed systems in production.
• Master’s or Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field.
• Strong problem‑solving skills, with deep expertise in distributed system design, multi‑tenant architectures, and high‑concurrency paradigms.
• Experience in applying caching strategies, event‑driven patterns, database optimization, and high‑availability design to solve large‑scale real‑world problems.
• Industry experience with modern backend programming languages (e.g., Go, Java, C++, Rust, or Python), asynchronous message platforms (e.g., Kafka), gRPC/REST APIs, and enterprise cloud/orchestration infrastructure.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree (Master’s or PhD) in Computer Science, Systems Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Experience leading zero‑downtime platform migrations, multi‑region active‑active deployments, or global disaster recovery strategies at extreme scale.
• Deep domain knowledge in foundational core platforms (e.g., API Gateways, Service Mesh, Auth/Identity systems, or Event‑Streaming platforms).

Ready to Ride?

This isn't the kind of place where you follow a playbook — it's where you help write one. If you're driven by impact, energized by challenge, and ready to shape how the world moves — we'd love to hear from you.

You may be eligible for bonuses, equity, and other compensation, as well as a range of benefits.

Offices remain key to collaboration and Uber's culture. Unless approved for full remote work, employees must spend at least 50% of their time in‑office. Some roles, like those at greenlight hubs, require full‑time in‑office presence.

Uber is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know by completing this form.

For Sunnyvale, CA-based roles: The base salary range for this role is USD $267,000 per year - USD $297,000 per year.

You will be eligible to participate in Uber's bonus program, and may be offered an equity award & other types of comp. All full‑time employees are eligible to participate in a 401(k) plan. You will also be eligible for various benefits.