Senior/Staff Backend Software Engineer (Data Retrieval, Data Processing Infrastructure & Data Management)
Overview: We are seeking a highly skilled Staff Backend Software Engineer to design and build scalable data infrastructure systems, including management control planes, SaaS data retrieval connectors, and distributed data processing pipelines. In this role, you will drive improvements in system stability, scalability, reliability, and cost efficiency. You will play a critical role in developing backend services and automation frameworks while collaborating closely with Engineering, DevOps, and Product teams. Your work will directly influence infrastructure performance and ensure platform optimizations align with an exceptional user experience.
Responsibilities
- Design and develop scalable backend APIs to support frontend applications and customer onboarding workflows.
Architect and build data retrieval connectors for multiple SaaS platforms with high reliability and extensibility. - Design and implement distributed data processing pipeline components running in Kubernetes environments.
- Develop and maintain management control plane services for data orchestration and governance.
- Partner with DevOps to implement GitOps-driven infrastructure automation and CI/CD best practices.
- Optimize infrastructure for performance, scalability, observability, and cost efficiency across cloud environments.
- Collaborate with Engineering and Product leadership to align technical solutions with business objectives while maintaining system reliability and user experience.
- Contribute to architectural decisions, technical strategy, and engineering best practices.
Requirements:
- 7–10 years of professional experience in backend or systems engineering.
- Strong proficiency in Golang and/or Python.
- Extensive experience designing and building RESTful APIs and gRPC services.
- Hands-on experience with Kubernetes and containerized distributed systems.
- Experience building scalable data processing systems or pipelines.
- Strong understanding of distributed systems concepts, databases, concurrency, and performance optimization.
- Experience operating in AWS and/or GCP, including cloud cost optimization strategies.
- Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code and GitOps practices.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a data-driven mindset.
- Excellent collaboration and communication skills.
Nice to Have
- SaaS integrations, event-driven systems (Kafka), or platform/control plane design.
- Observability tooling (Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry).
- Security or compliance-driven system experience.
AI Skills & AI-Native Engineering Expectations: As an AI-forward engineering organization, we expect senior engineers to effectively leverage AI tools and understand foundational AI concepts to enhance development efficiency and build AI-ready systems.
AI Engineering Capabilities:
- Leverage AI tools effectively to improve development efficiency and build AI-ready systems.
- Proficient with AI-powered developer tools; able to critically evaluate and refine AI-generated outputs.
- Strong understanding of core AI/ML concepts (LLMs, embeddings, vector databases, inference, evaluation).
- Experience integrating AI/ML APIs and building AI-ready data infrastructure (e.g., for RAG).
- Ensure data quality, governance, observability, reliability, security, and performance in AI-driven systems.
Employee Benefits
Our competitive benefits packages are designed to support our employees' well-being, both at work and at home. Our US based employees enjoy:
- Competitive compensation with equity and 401k
- Comprehensive healthcare with dental and vision coverage
- Flexible paid time off and paid holiday time off
- 12 weeks of new parent or family leave
- Personal and professional development resources
For more details on our US benefits, or for information on our international benefits, please see here.
Pay Transparancy
Please note that the base pay range is a guideline and for candidates who receive an offer, the base pay will vary based on factors such as work location, as well as the knowledge, skills and experience of the candidate. In addition to a competitive base salary, this position is eligible for equity awards and may be eligible for sales commission or incentive compensation based on the role or function within the company.
At Obsidian, we are proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. We value diversity and hire for talent, passion, and compassion. In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to submit satisfactory proof of identity and legal authorization. If you have a need that requires accommodation, please contact [email protected]
Information collected and processed as part of any job applications you choose to submit is subject to Obsidian’s Applicant Privacy Policy.
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What We Do
Protect your business-critical applications by mitigating threats and reducing risk with Obsidian, the first truly comprehensive security solution for SaaS. The company is backed by Greylock Partners, Wing, GV and Norwest Venture Partners.
