Staff Software Engineer

Pleo; United States; Remote; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Pleo is seeking a Staff Backend Engineer to own complex enterprise spend management platform components. You will design and evolve scalable backend services, applying Domain-Driven Design and modern architectures while mentoring engineers and influencing across teams.

Our tech stack centers on Node.js with TypeScript, Temporal, PostgreSQL, Kafka, and Redis. Remote role with occasional travel to Europe; this is a leadership-focused technical position.

Qualifications

• Candidates should have strong experience designing distributed systems and domain-driven design.
• Ability to mentor engineers and drive architecture decisions across teams.
• Experience with secure, scalable backend services and modern cloud-native practices.

Responsibilities

• Design and operate distributed systems, event-driven architectures, and cloud-native services.
• Apply Domain-Driven Design to model complex domains and define service boundaries.
• Build maintainable systems following Clean/Hexagonal Architecture and related principles.
• Design APIs, service integrations, and reliable asynchronous workflows using Temporal.
• Design secure authentication/authorization using OAuth 2.0, OIDC, WebAuthn, and fine-grained models.
• Ensure scalability, security, observability, and resilience in production.
• Improve shared libraries, tooling, and QA practices for consistency.
• Lead architectural decisions, evaluate trade-offs, and mentor other engineers.
• Leverage AI responsibly with guardrails, agent tooling, and engineering quality.

Skills

Distributed systems design

DDD modeling

Architecture design

Mentoring

AI integration

Tools

Node.js

TypeScript

Temporal

PostgreSQL

Kafka

Redis

Job description

About PleoMessy spend management is tricky business. And tedious processes are a lose-lose situation for all involved, not just finance. At Pleo, we're changing that. We build spend solutions that make managing money seamless, empowering, and surprisingly effective for finance teams and employees alike - with a vision to help all businesses ‘go beyond’.The word ‘Pleo’ actually means ‘more than you’d expect’, and living by that mantra has been the secret to our success over the last 10 years.Now, we’re at a pivotal moment in our journey; every move we make has a direct impact on our 40,000+ customers, our business, and our collective success. We need people who take pride in uncovering customer needs, who turn complex problems into simple solutions, challenge the way things are done (respectfully), and always aim high. With great ambitions driving us forward, we can’t say we’ve got this whole thing figured out. And frankly, that’s half the fun! What we can say is that we’re a driven, progressive, and, importantly, a kind bunch of 850+ people from over 100 nationalities, all committed to delivering the future of business spending, together.

As a Staff Backend Engineer, you'll take technical ownership of complex business domains, designing, building, and evolving scalable, reliable backend services for our enterprise spend management platform.

What you’ll be working on:

• Designing and operating distributed systems, event-driven architectures, and cloud-native services.
• Applying Domain-Driven Design (DDD) to model complex business domains and define clear service boundaries.
• Building maintainable systems following Clean Architecture, Hexagonal Architecture, and similar architectural principles.
• Designing APIs, service integrations, and reliable asynchronous workflows using technologies such as Temporal.
• Designing secure authentication and authorization solutions, applying standards such as OAuth 2.0, OIDC, and WebAuthn, as well as fine-grained authorization models.
• Ensuring scalability, security, observability, and resilience in production.
• Continuously improving shared libraries, project structure, development tooling, and automated quality assurance practices to promote consistency, reusability, and maintainability across services.
• Driving architectural decisions, evaluating trade-offs, and mentoring other engineers.
• Leveraging AI extensively but responsibly, including developing guardrails, agent harnesses, and tooling to maintain engineering quality in a fast-paced environment.

We primarily use Node.js with TypeScript, but strong engineering fundamentals matter more to us than experience with a particular language. Our technology stack also includes Temporal, SpiceDB, PostgreSQL, Kafka, and Redis.

This is a 80/20 hands‑on technical leadership role, combining deep engineering work with architectural ownership and influence across teams.

Remote, but travel to Amsterdam or other offsite meetings in Europe might occasionally be requested.

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