Backend Engineer
Summary
Senior backend/infrastructure engineer in San Francisco (primarily in-office) building fraud and risk detection infrastructure — real-time distributed systems that scale to billions of events and millions of users. Core stack: NoSQL big data (Cassandra/DynamoDB/BigTable), streaming (Kafka/Pub/Sub), plus vector databases and LLM-based systems.
Position Title: Backend Engineer / Infrastructure Engineer (Senior) Location: San Francisco, CA (in-office ~60 hrs/week; hybrid allowed for long commutes) Position Type: Full-Time (Permanent) Work Policy: Primarily in-person; relocation assistance may be available Start Timeline: ASAP – urgent hire Compensation Base Salary: $130,000 – $210,000 (varies by level, performance, and location) Equity: Generous and meaningful equity package Notes: Competitive compensation with flexibility for exceptional candidates
Role Summary
The Backend Infrastructure Engineer will develop fraud/risk detection infrastructure and scale distributed systems. Responsibilities include building real-time processing systems, shipping end-to-end features with urgency, and expanding platform scalability to handle billions of events and millions of users.
Core Responsibilities
- Ship end-to-end product features with ownership and urgency
- Scale infrastructure to support high-transaction systems and millions of users
- Develop distributed and real-time systems for fraud/risk detection or similar use cases
- Build scalable fundamentals for the product across industries
- Collaborate closely with engineering and product teams
Must-Have Qualifications
- Expertise in distributed systems and real-time processing
- Proficiency with big data technologies (Cassandra, DynamoDB, BigTable, or other NoSQL)
- Experience with streaming technologies (Kafka, Pub/Sub, etc.)
- Familiarity with scaling vector databases and LLM-based systems
- Ability to independently own and deliver product features end-to-end
Preferred Qualifications
- Knowledge of rate-limiting infrastructure
- Experience with Kubernetes or containerized environments
- Experience in observability or data visualization products
- Growth-stage startup experience
- Strong credentials from top companies or top schools
Candidate Red Flags Do Not Submit If
- Consulting-heavy background
- Primarily contract-based experience
- Frequent job hopping with short tenures
- Too much DevOps or internal tools work
- Former CTOs or long-time managers returning to IC roles
- Candidates unwilling to relocate to SF if required
- Experience limited to non-complex projects (internal tools, dashboards, testing)