Staff Backend Engineer

Shields Group; New York (NY); On-site; USD 250,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity included

Job summary

Shields Group is seeking a Staff Backend Engineer in New York City to own architecture, development, and scaling of mission-critical backend systems. This hands-on IC role focuses on design, performance, and reliable delivery of high-throughput services for email, reporting, calendars, and data integrations.

You will report to the Co-Founder & CIO, with no people management responsibilities, but significant ownership of technical decisions and infrastructure.

Qualifications

• 8+ years building and maintaining production backend systems.
• Strong hands-on experience with Java and Spring Boot.
• Deep PostgreSQL expertise including multi-tenant schemas and performance tuning.
• Significant experience operating production infrastructure on AWS.
• Ability to independently own complex backend engineering projects from architecture through deployment and optimization.
• Experience designing and scaling high-throughput production-grade backend systems.
• Ideally experience in multi-tenant B2B environments.
• Based in New York City and available to work on-site.

Responsibilities

• Scale high-throughput backend systems for email delivery, reporting, calendars, and data integrations.
• Architect and modularize backend services for resilience, maintainability, and independent scalability.
• Optimize PostgreSQL queries, API latency, and data-intensive operations for high performance at scale.
• Maintain reliable customer data integrations with Salesforce, Snowflake, and SMTP as volume grows.
• Assist in establishing AI infrastructure foundations, including data pipelines and backend architecture.
• Identify and implement improvements to developer workflows, tooling, and productivity.

Skills

Java

Spring Boot

PostgreSQL

AWS

Distributed systems

Backend architecture

Multi-tenant design

Technical ownership

On-site NYC

Job description

Compensation: $250,000–$300,000 Base + Equity

Employment Type: Full-Time

About the Company

Shields Group Search is partnering with an innovative technology company building a corporate access platform for investment banks. The platform brings together CRM, email, event management, reporting, and AI-powered meeting allocation into a unified solution.

We are seeking a highly experienced Staff Backend Engineer to take ownership of the architecture, development, and scaling of mission-critical backend infrastructure. This is a high-impact opportunity to join a growing engineering team, lead complex technical initiatives as an individual contributor, and help establish the technical foundation for future AI capabilities.

About the Role

This is a hands-on, staff-level individual contributor position responsible for both architecture and coding across high-throughput backend systems supporting email delivery, reporting, calendar functionality, and customer data integrations.

The Staff Backend Engineer will be the most senior technical individual contributor on the engineering team, reporting directly to the Co-Founder and Chief Information Officer (CIO).

There are no people management responsibilities. Instead, this position is focused on deep technical ownership, architectural decision-making, and building scalable, resilient production systems.

Staff represents the highest level of the company's four-level engineering ladder: Software Engineer, Senior Engineer, Lead Engineer, and Staff Engineer.

Key Responsibilities

• Scale High-Throughput Backend Systems: Design, build, and scale production infrastructure supporting email delivery, reporting, calendars, and customer data integrations.
• Backend Architecture & Modularity: Architect and modularize backend services to improve resilience, maintainability, and independent scalability.
• Database Performance & Optimization: Optimize PostgreSQL queries, API latency, and data-intensive operations to ensure performance at scale.
• Customer Data Integrations: Maintain reliable data synchronization across systems including Salesforce, Snowflake, and SMTP as customer volume increases.
• AI Infrastructure: Help establish the technical foundation for future AI-powered capabilities, including supporting data pipelines and backend architecture.
• Developer Experience: Identify and implement improvements to engineering workflows, tooling, and developer productivity.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience building and maintaining production backend systems.
• Strong hands-on experience with Java and Spring Boot, or a comparable backend framework.
• Deep expertise in relational databases, ideally PostgreSQL, including multi-tenant schema design, database partitioning, query optimization, and performance tuning.
• Significant experience building and operating production infrastructure on AWS.
• Demonstrated ability to independently own complex backend engineering projects from initial architecture through development, deployment, and ongoing optimization.
• Experience designing and scaling high-throughput, production-grade backend systems.
• Strong understanding of backend service architecture, distributed systems, data integrations, and scalability.
• Ideally, experience building and scaling systems in multi-tenant B2B environments.
• A track record of meaningful technical ownership across multiple positions, ideally with at least three distinct, high-impact engineering experiences.
• Ability to explain architectural decisions, technical trade-offs, and implementation details with depth and clarity.
• Ideally based in New York City and available to work fully on-site.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is an experienced, highly autonomous backend engineer who has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to take ownership of technically complex systems and scale them in production.

We are particularly interested in engineers who have:

• Held substantial technical ownership across at least three separate, meaningful engineering experiences.
• Built and scaled production backend systems with measurable technical impact.
• Developed deep expertise in PostgreSQL, particularly multi-tenant architectures, partitioning, and high-volume database workloads.
• Independently designed, implemented, and maintained complex backend services and integrations.
• Demonstrated stability and meaningful progression across previous roles.
• Developed strong architectural judgment while remaining deeply hands-on with coding.
• Worked collaboratively with engineering teams while taking accountability for major technical initiatives.

Employer pedigree is not a determining factor.

The company values demonstrated engineering ability, technical depth, and genuine ownership over specific company names or backgrounds. Its engineering team includes individuals from both major technology organizations and companies in other industries, including healthcare.

What Makes a Strong Candidate

Beyond technical experience, we are seeking someone who:

• Is collaborative, team-oriented, and focused on the collective mission.
• Asks thoughtful, contextual questions and demonstrates genuine curiosity about the product, customers, and technical challenges.
• Understands the broader business context behind architectural decisions.
• Can operate independently without sacrificing collaboration or alignment.
• Takes pride in building reliable, maintainable systems that scale.
• Brings both technical leadership and a willingness to remain hands-on with implementation.

Compensation & Logistics

• Equity: Included in the compensation package
• Location: New York City, NY
• Work Arrangement: Full-time, fully on-site
• Reporting To: Co-Founder & CIO
• Visa Sponsorship: Sponsorship is generally not preferred