Software Engineer, Backend (Platform)

Hex Technologies Inc.; United States; On-site; USD 199,000 - 295,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Health benefits

Flexible PTO

Competitive pay

Job summary

Hex is seeking a Senior or Staff-level software engineer for the Backend Platform team. You will work on the compute platform powering code execution, SQL querying, and data processing across the Hex application.

Responsibilities include building caching, graph-based execution, and performance instrumentation, with a focus on fast, scalable systems and clear abstractions. This is a remote-first role with optional NYC office access.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of engineering experience in data-driven systems.
• Expert-level Python, SQL, and data tooling knowledge.
• Strong understanding of data processing and performance.
• Ability to navigate complex codebases and design elegant abstractions.
• Inexhaustible desire to optimize millisecond-level performance.
• Strategic thinking aligned with product goals while preserving velocity.

Responsibilities

• Work on Backend Platform projects spanning backend data systems to the frontend notebook interface.
• Tackle projects like DuckDB data interoperability between Python and SQL.
• Build intelligent caching systems to speed up queries.
• Develop a graph-based dependency framework for multi-step execution.
• Instrument multi-language systems to identify performance bottlenecks.
• Create visualizations to help users understand performance metrics.

Skills

6+ years exp

Python

SQL

Jupyter kernels

Data warehousing

Remote communication

Tools

PostgreSQL

Redis

Kubernetes

Terraform

AWS

Job description

About the role

We are looking for a Senior or Staff-level software engineer to join our Backend Platform team.

Our team is responsible for building and maintaining Hex's core compute platform, which serves as the fundamental engine for all code execution, SQL querying, and data processing across the Hex application. Our platform powers everything from the core notebook interface and published applications to the complex data capabilities required by our AI agents.

Our mission is twofold: to make the compute platform exceptionally easy to use, develop on, and monitor, while also ensuring it is blazingly fast and performant. Engineers on this team operate at the challenging and rewarding intersection of systems architecture, API design, and deep performance optimization.

What you will do

On the Backend Platform team you’ll work on projects with high technical complexity and spanning across the stack, from our backend data systems to the frontend of Hex’s collaborative notebook interface.

Here are some examples of the kinds of projects you might tackle:

• Using DuckDB to enable seamless data interoperability between Python and SQL code written by our users or AI agents
• Building intelligent caching systems to speed up customer data queries
• Implementing a graph-based dependency framework for optimizing multi-step execution plans
• Instrumenting complex, multi-language systems to identify performance bottlenecks
• Building visualizations into the product to help users understand the performance characteristics of their code

About you

• 6+ years of engineering experience working on complex, data-driven systems or applications
• Expert-level understanding of Python, SQL, jupyter kernels, and/or data warehousing systems
• Deeply informed on industry trends around data processing, databases, and performant data architectures
• You love diving into highly complex codebases and have a passion for designing elegant abstractions that improve correctness and developer productivity
• An inexhaustible desire to understand where every millisecond of time could be going
• An instinct for strategic thinking and aligning with business and product goals while keeping a healthy balance of velocity and engineering excellence.
• Experience working in a remote-first team and strong communication skills in this context.

This role is fully remote anywhere within the US Eastern timezone, with the option to work from our NYC office.

Our stack

Our product is a web-based notebook and app authoring platform. Our frontend is built with Typescript and React, using a combination of Apollo GraphQL and Redux for managing application state and data. On the backend, we also use Typescript to power an Express/Apollo GraphQL server that interacts with Postgres, Redis, and Kubernetes to manage our database and Python kernels. Our backend is tightly integrated with our infrastructure and CI/CD, where we use a combination of Terraform, Helm, and AWS to deploy and maintain our stack.

The salary range for this role is: $198,750 - $295,000

• In addition to our unique culture, Hex proudly offers a competitive total rewards package, including but not limited to, market-benched salary & equity, comprehensive health benefits, and flexible paid time off.

By submitting an application the candidate consents to the use of their personal information in accordance with the Hex Privacy policy: https://learn.hex.tech/docs/trust/privacy-policy.

About Hex

Hex is growing our team of builders on a mission to make everyone a data person. Our platform solves key pain points with today’s data and analytics tooling, and empowers anyone to explore data using natural language, with or without code, on trusted context. Thousands of customers like Ramp, Figma, Stubhub, Anthropic, and Gamma love Hex for our beautiful UI, agentic superpowers, and boundless flexibility.

Hex has raised over $100M from leading investors like Sequoia, a16z, Snowflake and Amplify. With office hubs in San Francisco and New York, as well as remote team members throughout the US and UK, we’re a high-agency team that ships fast and has fun doing it. Check out our Intro to Hex video and employee handbook to learn more about what it’s like to work at Hex.