Backend Software Engineer
Build and operate scalable backend systems for voice-agent products, spanning distributed services, data infrastructure, real-time audio, and ML-enabled workflows. The role requires expert programming ability, strong database and reliability engineering skills, Kubernetes experience, and production experience with systems at scale.
About the job
Responsibilities
- Design and build backend systems and services powering Sesame's product.
- Own data models, APIs, distributed systems, and service lifecycles, including schema design, implementation, deployment, performance tuning, and on-call.
- Build frameworks and libraries for other engineers.
- Choose and operate relational databases, NoSQL stores, queues, caches, and search indexes.
- Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks, balancing cost, throughput, and latency.
- Architect ML-enabled systems such as real-time audio pipelines, agentic orchestration, and stateful conversation systems.
- Improve developer efficiency through tools and workflow enhancements.
Requirements
- Expert-level programming ability in at least one language.
- Strong distributed-systems fundamentals, including failure modes, consistency, and scaling strategies.
- Production experience with caching layers, sharded data stores, asynchronous processing pipelines, or shared-nothing services.
- Strong database engineering skills, including schema design, query tuning, and relational/non-relational data modeling.
- Experience with REST, WebSockets, gRPC, and HTTP semantics.
- Experience deploying and operating services on Kubernetes.
- Reliability engineering experience, including challenging on-call rotations.
- Deep interest and expertise in an area such as software design, CRDTs, real-time systems, or database internals.
Nice-to-haves
- Experience with payments, transaction processing, ledgers, or financial data integrity.
- Experience building search and relevance infrastructure, ranking, or indexing pipelines.
- Experience with real-time media, low-latency audio/video, or real-time communications.
- Deep Python expertise.
- Experience building on GCP.
Compensation and Benefits
- Annual salary range of $175,000–$280,000.
- 401(k) with a maximum employer match of 3.5% of compensation.
- Employer-paid health, vision, and dental benefits for employees and dependents.
- Unlimited PTO and sick time.
- Flexible spending account with employer matching up to $1,650 per year for medical FSA.
- Guardian Employee Assistance Program.
- Competitive stock options.
Skills
Python, Kubernetes, GCP, Rest, WebSockets, gRPC, Http, Distributed Systems, Relational Databases, NoSQL, Caching, Sharding, Asynchronous Processing, Search Indexing, Real-Time Audio
Similar jobs
Backend Engineering jobs
Mirage
New York, NY
Build and own backend services, APIs, data pipelines, and infrastructure powering an AI-native video platform. The role requires 5+ years of industry experience and strong expertise in distributed systems, production scaling, and generative AI integration.
Zoox
Foster City, CA
Build foundational, high-performance C++ systems that capture, store, retrieve, and transmit data from autonomous vehicle fleets. The role requires a bachelor’s degree, 3+ years of software development experience, and expertise in concurrency, networking, or inter-process communication.
Kalshi
New York, NY
Build and maintain high-performance backend trading infrastructure, including order-management systems and event-driven APIs. The role requires at least three years of backend engineering experience, concurrent programming expertise, relational database proficiency, AWS familiarity, and Go, Rust, or C++ skills.
Tessera Labs
San Jose, CA
Build and scale backend APIs, microservices, data pipelines, and enterprise integrations powering an AI automation platform. The role requires 3–5 years of backend experience, strong Python skills, and familiarity with databases, cloud infrastructure, security, and distributed systems.
Bilt Rewards
New York, NY
Build and scale Java microservices and back-end services for a mobile and web platform serving millions of users. The role requires 5+ years of software development experience, cloud expertise, and the ability to improve reliability, automation, and application architecture.