Staff Backend Engineer

Siftstack
San Francisco, CA
Hybrid

Who this role is best for

Strong fit for experienced backend engineers who design and optimize distributed systems and have a background in hardware or telemetry-heavy environments.

Best fit for

  • Experienced backend engineers with a background in distributed systems and hardware or telemetry environments
    — “Experience with Go, Rust, or Python, and strong Linux/networking fundamentals.”
  • Candidates with a track record of end-to-end ownership of features and performance optimization
    — “Own features end-to-end, from design to post-launch improvement.”
  • Individuals who thrive in collaborative, cross-functional engineering teams
    — “Collaborate with Frontend, Design, and Data teams to ensure features solve real customer problems.”

Things to consider

  • Periodic in-person collaboration required, with headquarters in Marina Del Rey, CA
    — “We collaborate in person twice a week—on Mondays and Thursdays—and come together for a full week every two months.”
  • Candidates must be U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents due to ITAR/EAR regulations
    — “U.S. Person Required: Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual such as an asylee or refugee in compliance with ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) / EAR (Export Administration Regulations) regulations.”

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience with real-time telemetry data processing and system scalability in your resume and interviews
    — “Design, build, and operate backend systems that process and store large volumes of real-time telemetry data.”
  • Showcase your proficiency in SQL and operational database tuning, especially in high-performance contexts
    — “Deep knowledge of SQL and operational database experience (indexing, migrations, tuning).”
  • Demonstrate familiarity with observability tools like Prometheus and Grafana in your technical interviews
    — “Familiarity with observability tools (Datadog, Grafana).”
  • Mention any experience with time-series or streaming data systems such as Kafka or Flink
    — “Experience with streaming or time-series data systems (Kafka, Flink, TimescaleDB, etc.).”
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • high-quality backend systems
  • optimized performance
  • scalable and reliable infrastructure
Typical background
backend engineeringdistributed systems

Skills & requirements

Required

Distributed SystemsGoRustPythonSQLAPI DesignLinuxNetworkingKubernetesPrometheusArgo CD

Preferred

Streaming Or Time-series Data SystemsPerformance TuningObservability Tools

Stack & domain

GoRustPythonLinuxNetworkingSQLRESTGrpc/protobufKubernetesPrometheusArgo CDDatadogGrafanaBackendInfrastructureTelemetryData ProcessingStorage

About the role

Original posting from Siftstack via Ashby

ABOUT SIFT

Sift is the data infrastructure platform for hardware engineering teams. Sift turns high-frequency telemetry into engineering insights for mission-critical systems. Teams use Sift to build and operate rockets, satellites, autonomous vehicles, energy systems, defense platforms, and more.

Founded by former SpaceX engineers who built the tools behind Dragon and Starlink, Sift is building the data infrastructure to herald the AI era for physical systems.

IN THIS ROLE, YOU'LL:

  • Design, build, and operate backend systems that process and store large volumes of real-time telemetry data.
  • Own features end-to-end, from design to post-launch improvement.
  • Collaborate with Frontend, Design, and Data teams to ensure features solve real customer problems.
  • Optimize backend systems for performance, scalability, and reliability.
  • Contribute to system evolution—migrating services, introducing caches, and improving storage or indexing layers.
  • Participate in on-call rotations, debugging live issues, and improving observability.
  • Raise the bar through code reviews, shared patterns, and mentorship.

THE SKILLSET YOU'LL BRING:

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, or another STEM discipline
  • 7+ years of experience in backend or infrastructure roles.
  • Strong understanding of distributed systems fundamentals—state, fault tolerance, recovery.
  • Experience with Go, Rust, or Python, and strong Linux/networking fundamentals.
  • Deep knowledge of SQL and operational database experience (indexing, migrations, tuning).
  • Experience building and scaling APIs (REST, gRPC/Protobuf).
  • Strong debugging skills and a production-first mindset.

Familiarity with Kubernetes, Prometheus, Argo CD, and other modern infrastructure tools.

BONUS POINTS:

  • Experience with streaming or time-series data systems (Kafka, Flink, TimescaleDB, etc.).
  • Experience with performance tuning and profiling at query or service layers.
  • Familiarity with observability tools (Datadog, Grafana).
  • Background in hardware or telemetry-heavy environments.

ENGINEERING AT SIFT:

You’ll join a tight-knit team of world-class engineers building foundational systems for next-gen machines. Technologies you'll work with may include:

  • Frontend & Backend: Go, gRPC, PostgreSQL, Protobuf, React, TypeScript
  • Data Infrastructure: Apache Arrow, DataFusion, Flink, Kafka, Parquet, Rust
  • Ops & Tooling: AWS, Kubernetes, Docker, GitHub Actions, Prometheus, Argo CD, Grafana, Linux

LOCATION:

Sift’s headquarters is in Marina Del Rey, CA (Next to LAX). We collaborate in person twice a week—on Mondays and Thursdays—and come together for a full week every two months. We are open to relocating candidates to LA or working from our San Francisco office for the right candidate.

Salary range: $200,000 - $260,000 per year. Plus equity and benefits.

ELIGIBILITY:

U.S. Person Required: Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual such as an asylee or refugee in compliance with ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) / EAR (Export Administration Regulations) regulations.

Source: Siftstack careers (Ashby)

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