Staff Backend Engineer

Ladders; United States; Remote; USD 250,000 - 400,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Unlimited PTO

Healthcare

MacBook Pro setup

401(k)

Job summary

Ladders is seeking a Staff Backend Engineer to join a leader in the Finance & Insurance space. This remote role owns critical backend systems in a high-scale, reliable financial environment.

You will shape technical direction across teams, build fast Go services and APIs, and ensure correctness, performance, and operational resilience.

The role offers strong compensation with equity, unlimited PTO, healthcare, a MacBook Pro, and opportunities to influence architecture and engineering standards.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of backend experience with Go, Python, or Java; Go preferred.
• Deep knowledge of distributed systems, concurrency, data structures, and algorithms.
• Proven track record designing and operating high-scale distributed systems in production.
• Strong focus on correctness and reliability in financial contexts.
• Demonstrated technical leadership across teams.
• Ability to work independently and manage ambiguity.
• Experience in trading or exchange systems, or risk and fraud engineering is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Own the design, build, and operation of critical backend systems end to end
• Set technical direction and influence architecture across teams
• Transform complex technical problems into actionable plans
• Build fast and reliable services and APIs primarily in Go
• Ensure production reliability through performance tuning and incident response
• Maintain high standards for correctness in financial systems
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to develop working systems
• Mentor engineers and contribute to engineering standards

Skills

Go

Python

Java

Distributed systems

Concurrency

System design

Leadership

Job description

For our client, we are seeking a Staff Backend Engineer to join the team of a leader in the Finance & Insurance space.

This role will own critical backend systems that support a high-scale, highly reliable financial environment. You will shape technical direction across teams, turning complex system problems into practical execution plans. The position calls for deep backend expertise, strong engineering judgment, and a focus on correctness, performance, and operational resilience.

The ideal candidate will partner closely with cross-functional stakeholders to build services and APIs that are fast, dependable, and maintainable. This is a hands‑on opportunity to influence architecture, improve production systems, and help set standards for engineering excellence.

Location: Remote

Compensation: $250,000 – $400,000 annually

Responsibilities

• Own the design, build, and operation of critical backend systems end to end
• Set technical direction and influence architecture across teams
• Transform complex technical problems into actionable plans
• Build fast and reliable services and APIs primarily in Go
• Ensure production reliability through performance tuning and incident response
• Maintain high standards for correctness in financial systems
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to develop working systems
• Mentor engineers and contribute to engineering standards

Qualifications

• 7+ years of backend engineering experience, with strong proficiency in Go, Python, or Java, with Go preferred
• Deep knowledge of distributed systems, concurrency, data structures, and algorithms
• Proven track record of designing and operating high-scale distributed systems in production
• Strong focus on correctness and reliability, especially in financial contexts
• Demonstrated technical leadership across teams
• Ability to work independently and manage ambiguity
• Sound judgment on tradeoffs between speed, quality, and maintainability
• Experience in trading or exchange systems, or risk and fraud engineering is a plus

Benefits

• Competitive salary and equity
• Unlimited PTO
• Health, vision, and dental coverage
• 401(k) match
• Full hardware setup including a new MacBook Pro and accessories

Our client is an equal opportunity employer.