# Software Engineer (Backend, Distributed Systems)

**Company:** [Censys](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/censys)
**Location:** Remote
**Role:** Backend Engineering
**Salary:** $120k – $169k/yr
**Experience:** 3+ years
**Skills:** Go, AWS, Azure, GCP, Kafka, Aws Kinesis, Google Pub/Sub, Cassandra, Hbase, Bigtable, Cloud Spanner, Kubernetes, gRPC, Rest, Protobuf
**Posted:** 2026-04-15

> Builds scalable backend services, APIs, and tooling for distributed systems processing massive internet datasets. Requires 3+ years experience with Go, cloud providers, message queues, and databases.

## Job Description

## What You’ll Do
- Help build large scale, real-time services and applications which leverage our massive datasets to power internal APIs and external applications.
- Build tooling, libraries, frameworks, and services that support security, research and data platform initiatives.
- Productionize prototypes into reliable internal tools, services, or platform capabilities.
- Participate in planning and technical discussions with engineering and product teams to help build the right solutions.
- Develop and maintain systems such as data pipelines, messaging systems, databases, caching layers, and services that run in the cloud or on-prem.
- Work with Machine Learning Engineers and Security Researchers to realize solutions that affect security outcomes.

## Skills You Have
- 3+ years of software engineering experience building distributed systems (i.e. data ingestion pipelines, databases, services).
- Experience with object-oriented programming - we use **Go**.
- Experience with at least one cloud provider, like: **AWS**, **Azure**, or **GCP**.
- Experience or familiarity with message queue technologies, like: **AWS Kinesis**, **Google Pub/Sub**, **Kafka**, or other.
- Experience working with databases, like: **BigTable**, **Cloud Spanner**, **HBase**, **Cassandra**, or other.
- Understanding of core distributed systems concepts such as scalability, fault tolerance, and reliability.
- Familiarity with using **AI**.
- Ability to write understandable, testable code with an eye towards maintainability.
- Strong communication skills and the ability to work effectively with other engineers and product managers.

## Things that make you stand out
- Familiarity with **gRPC** or **REST**.
- Familiarity with data serialization technologies, like: **Protobuf**, **MessagePack**, etc.
- Experience building, deploying, or maintaining containerized services in **Kubernetes**.
- An understanding of how the Internet works; how machines and services communicate using defined protocols / standards.
- Any Security Domain knowledge is a bonus

## Compensation
For candidates located in high cost of living locations (Seattle, San Francisco Bay Area, or New York City Metro), the salary range for this position is **$137,000 - $169,000** + bonus eligibility and equity.  
For candidates located in any other US location, the salary range for this position is **$120,000 - $157,000** + bonus eligibility and equity.  
In addition to our great compensation package, our benefits are effective on day one and include but are not limited to: 401k match, health, vision, dental, and more!

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**Apply:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/aeb70ee6-b8c9-4a56-b47b-e2076cc08942
**Canonical:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/aeb70ee6-b8c9-4a56-b47b-e2076cc08942