Pika

Senior Software Engineer, Backend

Posted Yesterday

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Palo Alto, CA

In-Office

Senior level

Information Technology

The Role

Design and build scalable backend services and real-time systems. Own end-to-end backend logic, API and database design, infrastructure, and production reliability. Drive technical decisions, mentor engineers, improve observability, and optimize systems for throughput, latency, and scale.

Summary Generated by Built In

Senior Software Engineer, Backend
Department: Engineering | Location: Palo Alto HQ | Type: Full-time, On-site
About the Role
We're looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to help shape the core infrastructure that powers Pika's products. You'll play a key role in designing and building robust, scalable backend systems — owning everything from API design and service architecture to real-time messaging infrastructure and platform integrations. This is a high-ownership role where your decisions directly impact how millions of users experience Pika.
As a senior engineer, you'll also help raise the bar for the team — through architecture guidance, code reviews, and mentoring more junior engineers.
What You'll Do
• Architect and build scalable backend services that power Pika's web, mobile, and multi-platform products
• Own backend logic end-to-end — from database modeling to API design, infrastructure decisions, and production reliability
• Design and build real-time systems — WebSocket connections, event-driven architectures, and message queues for low-latency communication
• Scale infrastructure for throughput, latency, and reliability as Pika grows
• Support internal tooling and operational automation to improve team workflows
• Drive technical decisions — write RFCs, evaluate trade-offs, and build consensus across engineering
• Mentor engineers through code reviews, architecture guidance, and pair programming
• Debug, optimize, and future-proof our systems for scale
What We're Looking For
• 5+ years of backend engineering experience building production services at scale
• Proficiency in modern backend technologies (Node.js, Python, Go, etc.) and frameworks (Express, FastAPI, etc.)
• Strong understanding of distributed systems — event-driven architectures, message queues, service-to-service communication
• Deep knowledge of database design and operations (SQL, NoSQL, data modeling, performance tuning)
• Experience with APIs, cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP), Kubernetes, and CI/CD workflows
• Comfort building real-time systems — WebSockets, long-polling, pub/sub patterns
• Strong debugging and observability skills — you can trace a problem across services and fix it fast
• Ownership mentality — you identify problems and ship solutions without waiting for specs
• Clear communication skills and a team-first mindset
Nice to Have
• Experience with AI/LLM integration (model orchestration, token management, prompt routing)
• Experience with multi-tenant SaaS platforms or multi-platform products
• Experience building internal tools or automation pipelines
• Previous startup experience — comfortable with ambiguity and moving fast