Principal Backend Engineer

Harrison Clarke is partnering with a high-growth, VC-backed startup in the San Francisco Bay Area that is scaling a complex, modern platform from the ground up. They’re hiring a Lead Backend Engineer to take ownership of backend architecture and drive the evolution of their core infrastructure. This is a pivotal role for someone who wants to shape how systems are designed, built, and scaled across a rapidly growing product. About the Role As Lead Backend Engineer, you’ll be responsible for architecting and evolving the company’s backend systems to support rapid product growth, increasing scale, and new feature development. You’ll work closely with engineering leadership, product, and frontend teams to define technical direction and ensure systems are robust, scalable, and future-proof. This is a hands‑on leadership role, balancing architecture, implementation, and technical strategy. What You’ll Do Own and evolve backend architecture across core product systems Design scalable, resilient, and high-performance distributed systems Lead decisions around infrastructure, data modelling, and system design Build and optimise APIs and backend services at scale Define engineering standards, best practices, and technical direction Collaborate with product and frontend teams to enable seamless end-to-end experiences What They’re Looking For Strong experience in backend engineering with significant system design ownership Proven track record architecting scalable, production-grade systems Deep expertise in at least one backend language (e.g. Python, Go, Java, or similar) Strong understanding of distributed systems, databases, and cloud infrastructure Experience working in high-growth or startup environments Ability to balance hands‑on coding with architectural leadership Experience in early‑stage or scaling startups Exposure to cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) Experience leading technical decisions or small engineering teams Familiarity with event‑driven architectures or microservices Own the architecture of a fast‑scaling modern platform High autonomy and direct influence on technical direction Close collaboration with founders and senior engineering leadership Opportunity to build systems that will scale with the company’s growth trajectory #J-18808-Ljbffr