Staff Backend Engineer – Search Features, APIs

Constructor

. Own the technical direction of one or more services, including architecture, performance, and reliability .

Posted 10/8/2026full-timeRemote • United StatesLead💰 $110,000 - $130,000 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates expertise in building and operating high-traffic, low-latency backend services, with a strong focus on Python development, scalable service-oriented architecture, and public API design. Proven ability to lead engineering teams, mentor peers, and effectively communicate technical concepts in documentation.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Python DevelopmentPublic API DesignScalable Service-Oriented ArchitectureIncident Response LeadershipPerformance Optimization

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

Backend Service DevelopmentAPI DesignPerformance EngineeringSystem ArchitectureCode Review

Soft Skills

MentoringClear Written CommunicationInfluencing Without AuthorityGood JudgmentComfort with Ambiguity

Tools & Technologies

AWSObservability ToolsIncident Management Tools

Industry Keywords

High-Traffic SystemsLow-Latency ServicesSearch ConstraintsInformation RetrievalE-Commerce Product Discovery

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

AWSPython

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Own the technical direction of one or more services, including architecture, performance, and reliability
Lead design of new systems and public APIs and evolve existing ones as traffic and feature scope grow
Raise the engineering bar through design and code review
Mentor mid and senior engineers into owning bigger scopes
Partner with product, engineering teams, and solutions/support to shape what is built and represent search constraints and trade-offs honestly
Participate in on-call for owned systems
Lead incident response and follow-through when systems break

Requirements

What you’ll need

Substantial experience building and operating high-traffic, low-latency backend services in production
Extensive Python knowledge
Experience with observability and performance work in live systems
Experience designing and evolving public APIs that external customers depend on
Experience designing and implementing scalable service-oriented architectures
Track record of leading projects spanning multiple engineers and quarters
Influence without authority and willingness to change position when someone has a better argument
Clear written communication, including design docs, RFCs, and postmortems
Good judgment about trade-offs and scope
Comfort with ambiguity and loosely defined problems
Ownership extending past merge to how the system behaves in production
Nice to have: Experience with AWS
Nice to have: Background in search, ranking, information retrieval, or e-commerce product discovery
Nice to have: Exposure to AI/LLM-facing infrastructure, including MCP or agent tooling

Benefits

Comp & perks

Unlimited vacation time; employees are strongly encouraged to take at least 3 weeks per year
Fully remote team; choose where you live
Work from home stipend
Apple laptops provided for new employees
Training and development budget for every employee, refreshed each year
Maternity & Paternity leave for qualified employees
Work with smart people who will help you grow and make a meaningful impact
Stock options offered in addition to the base salary
Regular team offsites to connect and collaborate