Staff Backend Engineer

We Love AI Jobs; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 200,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Benefits

Job summary

Sift is seeking a Staff Backend Engineer to design, build, and operate backend systems processing real-time telemetry. You will own features end-to-end from design through launch, improve performance and reliability, and mentor peers while collaborating with Frontend, Data, and Infrastructure teams.

The role requires 7+ years in backend or infrastructure, strong knowledge of distributed systems, and experience with Go, Rust, or Python, SQL, gRPC/Protobuf, Linux, and Kubernetes.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of backend or infrastructure experience.
• Bachelor's degree in CS, Engineering, Physics, or STEM.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems fundamentals.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate backend systems for large volumes of real-time telemetry.
• Own features end-to-end, from design to post-launch improvement.
• Collaborate with Frontend, Data, and Ops teams to ensure features solve real customer problems.
• Optimize backend systems for performance, scalability, and reliability.
• Contribute to system evolution and on-call rotations.

Skills

Go

Rust

Python

SQL

gRPC

Protobuf

Linux

Kubernetes

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Tools

Prometheus

Argo CD

Docker

Job description

# Staff Backend EngineerSiftSan Francisco, CA (Hybrid)Full-time$200,000 – $260,000 / yearUpload your resume once and Scout applies for youApply with ScoutShare this job:LinkedInXSave imageDesign and operate backend systems that process and store large volumes of real-time telemetry. You’ll own features through launch, improve system performance and reliability, and contribute to engineering standards while collaborating across teams.* Permanent* Hybrid* 7+ years* Bachelor's Degree### Skills and expertiseGoRustPythonSQLgRPCProtobufLinuxKubernetes### Key responsibilities* Design, build, and operate backend systems for large volumes of real-time telemetry.* Improve performance, scalability, and reliability across services, storage, and indexing layers.* Participate in on-call, debug production issues, and mentor engineers through reviews and shared patterns.## How this job comparesCompared with 343 open staff engineering jobs on October 10, 2026.Pay: This job pays $200K to $260K a year. The 219 open staff engineering jobs that publish US pay start at $206K on average, so this job starts in line with them.Similar open jobs: We Love AI Jobs lists 343 open staff engineering jobs at 113 companies.Remote work: This job is hybrid. 47 of the 343 staff engineering jobs (14%) are remote.AI in this role: Low. The company works with AI, but AI is a small part of this role's daily work. The work centers on backend systems for telemetry processing, storage, and APIs rather than AI models or products. AI is mentioned as company context, not as a daily job responsibility.## Full descriptionAbout SiftSift is the data infrastructure platform for hardware engineering teams. Sift turns high-frequency telemetry into engineering insights for mission-critical systems. Teams use Sift to build and operate rockets, satellites, autonomous vehicles, energy systems, defense platforms, and more.Founded by former SpaceX engineers who built the tools behind Dragon and Starlink, Sift is building the data infrastructure to herald the AI era for physical systems.In This Role, You'll:• Design, build, and operate backend systems that process and store large volumes of real-time telemetry data.• Own features end-to-end, from design to post-launch improvement.• Collaborate with Frontend, Design, and Data teams to ensure features solve real customer problems.• Optimize backend systems for performance, scalability, and reliability.• Contribute to system evolution—migrating services, introducing caches, and improving storage or indexing layers.• Participate in on-call rotations, debugging live issues, and improving observability.• Raise the bar through code reviews, shared patterns, and mentorship.The Skillset You'll Bring:• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, or another STEM discipline• 7+ years of experience in backend or infrastructure roles.• Strong understanding of distributed systems fundamentals—state, fault tolerance, recovery.• Experience with Go, Rust, or Python, and strong Linux/networking fundamentals.• Deep knowledge of SQL and operational database experience (indexing, migrations, tuning).• Experience building and scaling APIs (REST, gRPC/Protobuf).• Strong debugging skills and a production-first mindset.Familiarity with Kubernetes, Prometheus, Argo CD, and other modern infrastructure tools.Bonus Points:• Experience with streaming or time-series data systems (Kafka, Flink, TimescaleDB, etc.).• Experience with performance tuning and profiling at query or service layers.• Familiarity with observability tools (Datadog, Grafana).• Background in hardware or telemetry-heavy environments.Engineering at SIFT:You’ll join a tight-knit team of world-class engineers building foundational systems for next-gen machines. Technologies you'll work with may include:• Frontend & Backend: Go, gRPC, PostgreSQL, Protobuf, React, TypeScript• Data Infrastructure: Apache Arrow, DataFusion, Flink, Kafka, Parquet, Rust• Ops & Tooling: AWS, Kubernetes, Docker, GitHub Actions, Prometheus, Argo CD, Grafana, LinuxLocation:Sift’s headquarters is in Marina Del Rey, CA (Next to LAX). We collaborate in person twice a week—on Mondays and Thursdays—and come together for a full week every two months. We are open to relocating candidates to LA or working from our San Francisco office for the right candidate.Salary range: $200,000 - $260,000 per year. Plus equity and benefits.Eligibility:U.S. Person Required: Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual such as an asylee or refugee in compliance with ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) / EAR (Export Administration Regulations) regulations.