Backend Engineer - LLM Observability (LLM O11y) Team

Little more about the team:

The LLM Observability (LLM O11y) team builds the foundational layer that makes AI workloads observable in Honeycomb. We define how AI systems are represented in telemetry ( spans, traces, token usage, cost, eval signals, etc ), and ensure that data from diverse ecosystems (e.g., LangChain, OpenLLMetry, Braintrust ) is normalized into a consistent OpenTelemetry-based model .

This team owns the infrastructure and data model that all downstream AI observability experiences rely on. Our work powers everything from cost analysis to anomaly detection . If you’re excited about defining and building the “source of truth” for how AI systems behave in production, this is the team for you.

What you’ll do in the role:

• Design, build, and deliver backend systems and APIs. You'll architect and implement APIs and backend services in Go , emphasizing clarity, maintainability, and backward compatibility. You'll think proactively about cost, scale, and risk — anticipating technical issues and exploring alternatives and tradeoffs thoroughly.
• Build and maintain full-stack product features. You'll contribute frontend ( React/TypeScript ) and backend ( Go ) code to build robust product features, maintaining proficiency across the stack. You'll deliver impactful features that add value for our customers, our team, and Honeycomb overall.
• Provide technical leadership. You'll define patterns and operational guidelines that raise the bar for the team and beyond. You'll plan, lead, and deliver complex, multi-team projects — including ones with external dependencies — ensuring alignment and mentoring teammates along the way. We rotate tech lead responsibilities with each feature to allow everyone on the team to use and grow these skills.
• Collaborate across disciplines. You'll work closely within a product triad model alongside design and product partners, from discovery through delivery, iterating quickly based on user feedback. You'll contribute to the team's technical roadmap and help shape quarterly product roadmaps, tying technical considerations to business outcomes.
• Support and own your software in production. You'll participate in on-call rotations to ensure reliable operations and proactively address user pain points. You know when to shift between forward-looking feature work and production needs.
• Communicate clearly and multiply your impact. Regular written and verbal communication, collaboration, and feedback are foundational skills you'll use daily. You'll mentor engineers, share knowledge, and delegate to help others grow — your goal is to make everyone around you more effective.

What you’ll bring to the role:

• Deep experience designing, building, and maintaining backend systems. You have substantial expertise building APIs and backend services in Go (or similar languages), with strong opinions about API design, error handling, and developer experience. You've seen many different patterns and have developed your own frameworks for evaluating how to approach new technical challenges.
• Frontend proficiency with React and TypeScript. You have professional experience delivering frontend features and contributing to full-stack software through all stages of the development lifecycle, though your primary expertise is in backend systems.
• Experience leading complex technical projects. You've planned and delivered projects that span multiple teams or systems, navigating external dependencies and uncertainty. You know how to break down complex work, ship incrementally, and balance technical investment with business goals.
• Ownership and autonomy. You proactively identify problems, propose solutions, and own your projects end-to-end — from planning through deployment and ongoing maintenance. You tackle tech debt proactively and can debug the toughest issues through the entire stack.
• A track record of making others better. You've mentored engineers, led technical design reviews, and helped raise the quality bar for a team or domain. People come to you for guidance, and you help build leaders around you.
• A collaborative and flexible mindset. You're comfortable working cross-functionally, pivoting priorities to address evolving customer or business needs, and maintaining strong teamwork. We work by building small changes and iterating based on customer interaction.
• Clear, open communication. We see clear, thoughtful, and regular written and face-to-face communication — including a willingness to give and receive feedback — as a fundamental engineering skill and one of the strongest predictors of engineering impact, not just a nice to have, and we hope you do too.
• An interest in observability and production culture. We maintain an on-call rotation and work hard to keep it from becoming a bad experience. You've supported software in production and have opinions about how to do it well. Bonus points if you want to fold that experience into the Honeycomb product itself.
• Nice to have: experience with AI-assisted development. You're proficient with AI coding tools ( Copilot, Claude Code, Cursor, etc. ) or are excited to incorporate them into your workflow. We're actively exploring how AI can accelerate our development practices.