Staff Cloud Backend Developer

ALSO; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Robust health coverage (health, dental

One Medical membership

Progyny fertility benefits

Flexible time off

401(k) match

Job summary

ALSO is building and operating the backend stack for its flagship connected EVs, delivering secure, scalable IoT infrastructure and enriching analytics. You will architect and implement core backend systems, drive API design (REST/GraphQL), and shepherd data flows from devices to product APIs.

You'll mentor engineers, influence architectural decisions, and help scale our cloud infrastructure across global deployments.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in backend development with remote device lifecycle experience.
• Proven track record shipping and operating production systems from scratch.
• Strong AWS expertise and API design mastery (REST/GraphQL).
• Experience with event-driven architectures and messaging systems.

Responsibilities

• Architect and implement backend systems for secure, scalable IoT infrastructure.
• Improve core cloud infrastructure: API design, databases, services, observability.
• Build data and API integrations with external services and partners.
• Mentor engineers and shape engineering best practices.
• Drive a culture of technical excellence and continuous learning.

Skills

Backend architecture

Cloud infrastructure

API design (REST/GraphQL)

Security & privacy

Mentorship

Tools

AWS stack

Kafka

Redis

SQS/SNS

OAuth2

JWT

MQTT/CoAP

Job description

About ALSO.

We’re ALSO, an electric mobility company originally conceived as a part of Rivian. We’re a passionate team of builders, dreamers, doers and innovators, focused on creating entirely new (not to mention, innovative and delightful) vertically integrated, small EVs designed to meet the global mobility challenges of today and tomorrow. Our mission is to inspire everyone to ride ALSO- replacing many local car, truck and SUV miles with ones on vehicles that are more affordable, more enjoyable and 10-50x more efficient.

As a Staff Backend Developer on the Also backend team, you will drive technical excellence and architectural decisions for our core infrastructure that delivers an excellent customer experience on Also’s flagship connected EVs. You’ll lead the evolution of our connected EV platform, from secure data ingestion to product facing APIs, and influence how we build and scale at Also. You balance speed and rigor, know how to scale systems, and thrive in fast paced 0-1 environments. The systems you build will power core product features and enhance our analytics and fleet intelligence capabilities.

What you will do:

• Contribute to the architecture and implementation of backend systems to support secure, scalable IoT infrastructure and its fleet management
• Drive improvements to core cloud infrastructure: API design, database schema, service interactions, event handling, observability, and deployment workflows.
• Contribute to shared services for API gateway, caches, schema upgrades
• Build data and API integrations with external services and partner platforms.
• Strengthen security and privacy across the platform, including user authentication
• Design and implement systems for high availability and geographic redundancy, ensuring reliability across global deployments.
• Ensure production readiness with automated testing, performance monitoring, and deployment safety.
• Mentor engineers and contribute to technical decision-making, hiring processes, and engineering best practices.
• Drive and define a team culture of technical excellence, collaboration, and continuous learning.

What you will bring:

• 10+ yrs building and scaling back-end systems, including at least one experience with the full lifecycle of managing remote devices.
• Proven ability to design, ship, and operate production systems from scratch.
• Strong experience with AWS (e.g. Lambda, ECR/ECS, DynamoDB, S3, IAM).
• Mastery of API design (REST/GraphQL), schema design, and data exchange (gRPC/JSON-RPC).
• Excellent knowledge of event-driven architecture and message queueing systems (e.g. Kafka, Redis, SQS/SNS, pub/sub patterns).
• Experience with authentication/authorization protocols (OAuth2, OID, JWT, SAML, mTLS).
• Familiarity with IoT protocols (MQTT, CoAP), device lifecycle management, and telemetry pipelines.

The salary for this position ranges from $170,000 - $210,000 per year, depending on experience and qualifications.

Perks & Benefits

• Robust health coverage - excellent health, dental, and vision insurance covered up to 100% by ALSO, with FSA & HSA options
• One Medical membership and dedicated insurance advocates
• Rich fertility and family-building benefits with Progyny
• Flexible time off
• 401(k) match