Staff Backend Engineer

Staff Engineer

We're looking for a staff engineer to help shape the technical direction of our backend systems. You'll lead complex projects, make architectural decisions that affect the whole platform, and raise the bar for engineering quality across the team.

This is a role for someone who wants to build, not just advise. You'll write code, own systems, and ship, but you'll also be expected to think beyond your immediate work to identify what the team should be building next and how we should build it.

You'll drive technical initiatives across the company. Some examples:

• System architecture: Designing how our agent infrastructure should evolve as we scale, making tradeoffs between speed, reliability, and complexity
• Hard technical problems: Owning the most ambiguous, highest-stakes projects where getting it wrong would hurt the business
• Technical strategy: Identifying gaps in our systems before they become problems and building the case for addressing them
• Engineering quality: Setting standards for code review, system design, and operational excellence through your own work

At the staff level, you'll work across team boundaries and be responsible for outcomes beyond your individual output. You'll mentor other engineers and help them grow, but through collaboration on real work rather than formal management.

Tech stack:

• Backend: Python (Django/FastAPI), TypeScript (Node.js)
• Infrastructure: AWS, Modal, Kubernetes, Postgres
• Frontend: TypeScript, Next.js (you'll interact with this when needed)

You might be a fit if you:

• Have 7+ years of backend engineering experience, with a track record of leading complex projects
• Have opinions about how systems should be built, and can articulate the tradeoffs behind those opinions
• Can take a vague problem and turn it into a clear technical approach without much guidance
• Write excellent code and hold others to a high standard without being a bottleneck
• Are energized by hard problems and comfortable with uncertainty
• Want to be hands-on at a company where staff engineers ship code, not just review it
• Have built systems that scaled and understand what breaks at each order of magnitude

Perks & benefits:

• Competitive base + bonus + equity
• Catered lunch daily
• Dinner stipend
• $500/month wellness & commuter benefit (gym, fitness classes, mental health)
• 401(k) plan
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage

Giga is an equal opportunity employer. We're committed to providing equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.