Software Developer - Backend

TextNow; United States; On-site; USD 136,000 - 299,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Free phone service

Employee stock options

Unlimited vacation

12 paid holidays per year

Competitive pay

Health, dental, and vision benefits

Short‑term & long‑term disability

401(k) matching

Parental leave

Learning & development opportunities

Job summary

TextNow is seeking a senior backend engineer to design and own high‑performing, scalable Go microservices in a cloud‑native environment. You will drive architectural modernization, define API design, data modeling, and deployment pipelines while collaborating with product, mobile, and data teams to deliver reliable experiences for millions of users.

The role emphasizes observability, performance optimization, and production readiness, with opportunities to mentor others and influence backend

Qualifications

• Proven track record architecting modular, high‑performance microservices.
• Deep Go expertise; PHP experience with legacy systems is a bonus.
• Strong background in system design, observability, and performance optimization.
• Experience with AWS, Kubernetes, CI/CD, Protobuf, and auto‑scaling architectures.
• Experience using AI/automation to improve velocity and reliability.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and sustain high‑performance backend services using Go microservices.
• Lead architectural modernization to improve scalability and developer velocity.
• Own API design, data modeling, deployment, telemetry, and tests.
• Define observability standards and production diagnostics for reliability.
• Mentor developers and influence strategic backend direction.

Skills

Go

PHP

Microservices

Observability

AWS

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Protobuf

Argo CD

Auto-scaling

Tools

Docker

Job description

We believe that communication belongs to everyone. TextNow is redefining how people connect by combining simplicity, intelligence, and accessibility. We're a team of curious builders using technology to make communication more affordable and powerful for millions of users every day.

Software Developer - Backend, you won't just build services—you'll shape the systems, architecture, and tooling that make them possible. At TextNow, Members of Technical Staff combine leadership and hands‑on coding to enable the highest leverage opportunities possible. Being able to operate strategically, as well as diving into the lowest‑level details, is a must. You’ll take technical ownership of key backend domains and work across mobile, web, and data to create faster, smarter, more reliable systems.

AI and automation are at the core of how we build. You’ll use them to accelerate development, improve performance, detect and resolve issues faster, and continuously raise the bar for backend development excellence.

We’re hiring Members of Technical Staff across multiple levels (intermediate/senior/staff+). Whether you’re an experienced developer looking to lead complex systems, or an early‑career developer eager to grow, we’ll align your title and scope based on experience and impact.

What You’ll Do

• Design, develop, and sustain high‑performance, scalable backend services using Go microservices and modern cloud‑native tooling.
• Lead architectural modernization and modularization to improve scalability, observability, and developer velocity.
• Define and own the entire lifecycle of your systems: API design, data modelling, deployment (CI/CD), live‑traffic monitoring, integration and load testing, telemetry & data analysis, experiment design (A/B tests), and continuous iteration.
• Influence and evolve our architecture: propose and lead initiatives to decompose monoliths, migrate legacy code, build shared frameworks and reusable service components; evaluate new backend technologies and lead their adoption.
• Apply AI‑driven tools and automation frameworks to speed up development, code analysis, testing, and reliability.
• Leverage intelligent telemetry, analytics, and optimisation pipelines to improve service performance and resilience.
• Define observability standards, telemetry pipelines, and fault‑tolerance strategies for production‑grade distributed systems.
• Partner closely with product, mobile, and data teams to deliver seamless, high‑quality experiences across all platforms.
• Drive technical discussions, mentor developers, and influence strategic direction across backend and infrastructure domains.

Who You Are

• A technical leader with the ability to create and lead road‑maps/initiatives that align to high‑level business objectives.
• Deep expertise in Go, with additional experience in PHP for legacy systems is a bonus.
• Proven track record of architecting modular, maintainable, and high‑performance microservices.
• Strong background in system design, observability, and performance optimisation.
• Experience with AWS, Kubernetes, Argo CD, Protobuf, CI/CD pipelines, and auto‑scaling architectures.
• Experience using AI and automation to improve developer velocity, reliability, or system intelligence.
• A collaborative technical leader who thrives in fast‑moving environments and mentors others to excel.
• Passionate about building resilient, intelligent, and highly scalable backend systems that serve millions of users.
• You architect for observability, reliability, and production‑readiness: you understand instrumentation, SLOs/SLIs, fault‑tolerance, runbooks, incident triage, scalable telemetry pipelines, and production diagnostics for backend systems.
• You have been a technical leader (not just an individual contributor): you've influenced roadmap decisions, contributed to multi‑team initiatives, mentored/led developers, driven culture/process improvements, and interfaced with senior developer/product leadership.

Base Salary Range

The expected base salary range for this role is: $136,300 – $273,900 a year.

United States (All other areas not listed above): $123,900 – $249,000.

United States (NYC, CT, NJ, Seattle, LA, San Diego): $136,300 – $273,900.

United States (San Francisco / Bay Area): $148,700 – $298,800.

Benefits

• Free phone service
• Strong work‑life blend
• Employee stock options
• Unlimited vacation
• 12 paid holidays per year
• Competitive pay
• Health, dental, and vision benefits
• Short‑term & long‑term disability
• $750 annual wellness benefit or healthcare spending account
• 401(k) matching
• Parental leave for eligible employees
• Learning & development opportunities
• We travel a few times a year for various team events, company‑wide off‑sites, and more

Equal Opportunity

We are an equal‑opportunity employer and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, or any other protected characteristic.

Applicants who require reasonable accommodation during the hiring process may contact our Talent Team.

This posting is for a current, active vacancy.