Staff Backend Engineer: APIs, Microservices & Scale

WEX, Inc.

Seattle (WA)

On-site

USD 141,000 - 173,000

Full time

14 days+

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Job summary

WEX, Inc. is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to design, develop, and operate scalable backend services powering our mobile and web apps. You will work with product, platform, and security teams to deliver robust APIs and distributed systems that drive exceptional customer experiences.

You will lead architecture discussions, optimize databases, and implement automated testing and observability. You will mentor engineers and help improve engineering practices while advancing CI/CD pipelines and

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field.
8-10 years of professional software engineering experience.
Strong expertise in Java and Spring Boot for enterprise-grade backend apps.
Experience designing RESTful APIs and distributed microservices.
Strong understanding of OO design, data structures, algorithms, and design principles.
Experience with PostgreSQL or other relational DBs, including schema design and indexing.
Experience building scalable, secure, highly available distributed systems.
Understanding of authentication/authorization, API security, OAuth2/JWT, and secure dev practices.
Experience with asynchronous messaging (Kafka, RabbitMQ).
Familiarity with Redis and distributed caching strategies.
Experience with CI/CD, automated testing, and code quality tools.
Strong observability knowledge (logging, metrics, tracing, monitoring, alerting).
Experience collaborating with mobile teams and API design for iOS/Android.
Excellent communication, collaboration, mentoring, and leadership skills.
Hands-on experience using AI coding assistants and tools.

Responsibilities

Design, develop, and maintain scalable, secure backend services using Java, Spring Boot, PostgreSQL, and REST APIs.
Architect and build distributed microservices that are resilient, observable, and maintainable.
Design REST APIs for mobile, web, and partner integrations.
Lead architecture discussions and produce design docs.
Optimize database design, queries, and indexing for performance.
Develop automated testing strategies including unit, integration, and performance tests.
Improve reliability with observability, logging, tracing, and health monitoring.
Identify bottlenecks and drive platform improvements.
Build and enhance CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation.
Collaborate with Product, Mobile, Web, Security, and DevOps teams.
Lead code reviews, mentor engineers, and raise engineering quality.
Troubleshoot production issues and perform root cause analysis.
Evaluate emerging technologies and provide technical recommendations.
Create architecture docs, API specs, runbooks, and readiness plans.
Design highly available services with retries, circuit breakers, caching, and rate limiting.
Drive cross-functional initiatives as technical lead or STO.
Gain hands-on with automation and AI-assisted software engineering.