Staff Back End Engineer

Altruist; Los Angeles (CA); Hybrid; USD 200,000 - 265,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stunning, amenity-filled offices in CA

Competitive total compensation

Premium healthcare, dental, and vision

401k with 4% match

16 week paid parental leave

Growth and development opportunities

One month work from anywhere policy

Job summary

Altruist is hiring Staff Back End Engineers in Los Angeles, CA, to build secure, scalable, and reliable distributed systems. You will mentor engineers, own cross-service problems end-to-end, and strengthen IAM, AWS, and API layers while improving observability and security across high-volume platforms.

The role emphasizes leadership, ownership, and a builder mindset, with a hybrid in-office expectation at Culver City three days per week.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of software engineering experience building distributed systems.
• Backend-focused with ability to work across the stack.
• Track record shipping work in security, scale, or infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Lead engineering best practices and mentor peers.
• Own cross-service problems end to end; design and rollout.
• Design and harden IAM capabilities (OAuth/OIDC, RBAC).
• Improve AWS/cloud infrastructure security and guardrails.
• Enhance database performance and security for high-volume systems.
• Harden APIs and services; ensure reliability and observability.
• Drive production reliability and incident remediation.

Skills

Leadership

Mentoring

Problem solving

Communication

Security focus

Cloud familiarity

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS or related

Tools

Java

Spring Boot

Microservices

AWS

PostgreSQL

Kubernetes

Job description

Current openings at Altruist

Staff Back End Engineer

Los Angeles, CA salary range

About Altruist

Altruist is transforming the multi-trillion dollar wealth management industry by building an AI platform for wealth professionals. We partner with financial advisors nationwide, empowering them to grow, optimize time and resources, and deliver superior outcomes for their clients.

We're looking for exceptional talent to help us achieve our mission of making financial advice better, more affordable, and accessible to all. If you're passionate about challenging the status quo and want to do the most important work of your life, we'd love to meet you!

But first, our values

Kindness - Kindness doesn't just equal niceness. We listen to understand. We embrace, and encourage healthy debate and diverse perspectives. We approach conflict openly, honestly, and respectfully.
Brilliance - Humility is the skill we're most proud of and possessing a growth mindset is always top of mind. We take ownership in everything we touch; regularly using our unique superpowers to reach a common goal as a team. We succeed and fail as one.
Grit - When challenges arise, we stay laser focused on achieving our mission and finding a way forward, even when it's hard. We are nimble and maintain a sense of urgency, swiftly adapting to change and overcoming obstacles.

The opportunity

Altruist is in the midst of an exceptional growth phase and we're excited to hire Staff Back End Engineers to join our growing Engineering organization. We have multiple teams hiring for high impact & high visibility projects, with a particular focus on the security, scalability, and reliability of the platform our clients trust with their assets. Our recruitment team will work with you to match you to the right opportunity to help you grow your career at Altruist. This is a hybrid role, with an expectation of being in the office three days each week out of our Culver City office.

Your impact

• Act as a leader and steward of engineering best practices, helping to mentor other engineers and develop impactful solutions
• Own systemic, cross-service problems end to end — from problem definition through design, implementation, and rollout
• Design, build, and harden identity and access management capabilities: authentication, authorization, RBAC, and OAuth/OIDC flows
• Strengthen our AWS and cloud infrastructure, including its security posture, configuration, and operational guardrails
• Improve database performance, security, and optimization across high-volume, transactional systems
• Harden APIs, services, and distributed systems against failure and abuse
• Drive production reliability: lead incident remediation, close out root causes, and build the observability needed to catch issues early
• Partner with our Security/CISO team to translate identified gaps into durable engineering solutions you design and ship
• Focus on building and scaling services and user-facing web applications that are customer-centric, performant, and secure

What you bring

• Experience — 6+ years of software engineering experience building precise and scalable distributed systems with best engineering practices
• Full-stack with a backend lean (a plus) — You're primarily a backend engineer but comfortable working across the stack; a core engineering background is preferred over a purely product-focused one
• A track record of building, not just reviewing — You've shipped meaningful work in security, scale, or infrastructure. This is a builder role, not a Security/AppSec role: we're looking for engineers who own remediation and deliver hardened systems
• Education — Ideally looking for a B.A. / B.S. degree in relevant fields such as Computer Science or similar Engineering/Mathematics degrees
• Technical aptitude — You're technologically savvy and can easily get up to speed on modern tech stacks (Java, Spring Boot, Microservices, AWS, Postgres, Kubernetes). Strong Java + AWS is a great anchor
• Domain exposure (a plus) — Fintech, payments, or other security-sensitive, highly regulated environments
• Ownership — The pride you put into every aspect of your work is unparalleled and undeniable
• Superb communication — Intentional dialogue is a superpower. You listen as well as you share your perspective with others
• Resilience — We're inspired by your unwavering determination to achieve success, no matter the adversity you face along the way
• Assurance — Your confidence is brilliant, yet ego-less. You possess a strong knowledge base, the ability to discover the unknown, and are open to differing perspectives
• Creative problem solving — Identifying the problem is simply not enough. You're instinctually creative with your approach in finding solutions to roadblocks

$200,000 - $265,000 USD

What we bring

Attracting and retaining top-tier talent is a priority. We are proud of the culture we've built and are cognizant of the ever-changing professional landscape. Our dynamic offering of perks and benefits are tailored for you to feel your best while doing your best.

• Stunning, amenity-filled office spaces in Culver City, CA, San Francisco, CA, and Dallas, TX. Our offices are intentionally designed for comfort, collaboration, and productivity.
• Competitive total compensation.
• Premium healthcare, dental, and vision insurance plans (HMO and PPO).
• 401k savings plan with a 4% match and immediate vesting.
• 16 week paid parental leave after one year of employment.
• Professional growth and development opportunities including an employee mobility program and an annual L&D budget allocation for each employee.
• Company perks program (includes discounts on pet insurance, fitness, cell phone plans, and travel, etc.).
• Financial guidance program (includes counseling on navigating debt, tracking personal spend, saving and planning goals, home-purchasing preparedness, etc.).
• One month work from anywhere policy (with the exception of a few countries).

Total compensation includes a competitive benefits package, along with a bonus program for eligible roles. For salaried positions, a salary offer will be determined by a number of factors including experience, skill level, internal pay equity, geographic location, and other relevant business considerations. We review all employee pay and compensation programs regularly to ensure fair, equitable, and competitive pay. At Altruist, we are committed to providing fair, equitable, and competitive compensation by leveraging market data to inform our pay bands. Base salaries will be reviewed at regular intervals throughout the year, typically in conjunction with performance review cycles. By evaluating compensation on a regular basis, we are able to reward high performance and ensure all employees have opportunities for growth.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Altruist we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you're excited about this role, but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

As set forth in Altruist's Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.