Staff Engineer

Freehand; California; Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Freehand is seeking an exceptional Staff Engineer to own and shape large-scale backend systems. This is a purely individual contributor role focused on architecture, design, and hands-on delivery, with significant influence on technical direction and engineering practices.

The role emphasizes deep backend fundamentals, distributed systems, and problem solving in a remote/high-ownership environment. AI experience is not mandatory, but beneficial for relevant projects.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of backend engineering experience.
• Deep hands-on backend development and system design.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, scalability, reliability, and performance.
• Proven ability to design and architect complex systems.
• Excellent coding and problem-solving skills.
• Experience owning technically complex projects from design through execution.
• Independent decision-making on architecture and technology choices.
• Effective communication and collaboration in a remote, high-ownership environment.

Responsibilities

• Design and build scalable, reliable, high-performance backend systems.
• Drive architecture and technical decisions for complex engineering problems.
• Take end-to-end ownership of critical projects and systems.
• Solve challenges in scalability, performance, reliability, and distributed systems.
• Contribute hands-on to coding and technical implementation.
• Define and improve engineering practices, design patterns, and standards.
• Shape the technical direction with engineering leadership.
• Mentor engineers through guidance while remaining a hands-on IC.
• Apply modern and AI-native engineering practices where relevant.

Skills

Backend development

System design

Distributed systems

Code ownership

Hands-on coding

AI-native practices

Problem solving

Communication

Job description

We are looking for an exceptional Staff Engineer to join our engineering team and work on complex, large-scale backend engineering problems. This is a purely individual contributor role focused on technical depth, architecture, system design, hands-on engineering, and solving challenging technical problems. You will have significant ownership and influence over engineering decisions without being responsible for people management. AI experience is not mandatory for this role. We are primarily looking for engineers with strong backend fundamentals, excellent problem-solving ability, and a proven track record of delivering high-impact engineering solutions.

Responsibilities:

• Design and build scalable, reliable, and high-performance backend systems.
• Drive architecture and technical decisions for complex engineering problems.
• Take end-to-end ownership of critical projects and systems.
• Solve challenging problems involving scalability, performance, reliability, and distributed systems.
• Contribute hands‑on to coding and technical implementation.
• Define and improve engineering practices, design patterns, and technical standards.
• Work closely with engineering leadership to shape the technical direction of products and systems.
• Evaluate trade-offs and make sound technical decisions in ambiguous situations.
• Identify engineering bottlenecks and drive improvements across systems and processes.
• Mentor engineers through technical guidance and design discussions, while remaining a hands‑on IC.
• Apply modern and AI-native engineering practices where relevant.

Requirements:

• 8+ years of strong backend engineering experience.
• Deep hands‑on experience in backend development and system design.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, scalability, reliability, and performance.
• Proven ability to design and architect complex systems.
• Strong coding and problem-solving skills.
• Experience owning technically complex projects from design through execution.
• Demonstrated individual impact on engineering problems and products.
• Ability to independently make architecture and technology decisions.
• Strong understanding of engineering trade-offs and design principles.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Ability to operate effectively in a remote, high-ownership engineering environment.