Senior Backend Engineer

Senior Backend EngineerLocation: Hybrid, Washington, DCAbout the RoleAs a Senior Backend Engineer, you will design and implement backend services that support secure, reliable, and queryable platform capabilities. You will work across microservices, messaging systems, data schemas, APIs, access control, and data-sharing workflows. This role is ideal for an engineer with strong experience in Go, C++, or a similar object-oriented or lower-level programming language who enjoys building production services, durable data models, and secure system-to-system integration patterns. Go will be the primary implementation language for this role.ResponsibilitiesDesign and develop backend services using Go, C++, or a similar object-oriented or lower-level programming language, with primary implementation in Go. Build platform services that support configurable rules, workflow logic, auditability, and secure operational history. Develop and maintain data schemas, domain models, event structures, persistence strategies, and data access patterns across backend systems. Contribute to shared data exchange capabilities, including controlled data-sharing workflows and cross-environment integration patterns. Design service-to-service communication patterns, API contracts, event flows, and integration points between distributed services. Build backend infrastructure for authentication, authorization, role-based access control, and customer onboarding workflows. Build event-driven systems using Apache Kafka or comparable messaging technologies. Partner with product, frontend, AI/ML, DevOps, and security stakeholders to translate requirements into well-structured backend services. Improve system performance, scalability, reliability, and debuggability across production services. Participate in design reviews, code reviews, implementation planning, and security reviews.Required Qualifications5+ years of professional backend or systems engineering experience. Strong proficiency in Go, C++, Java, Rust, or a similar object-oriented or lower-level programming language. Experience designing and operating cloud-based architectures on AWS, Azure, GCP, or similar cloud platforms. Strong understanding of microservice architecture, service boundaries, API design, inter-service communication, and distributed systems tradeoffs. Experience with data modeling, schema design, relational and/or non-relational databases, and long-term data maintainability. Experience with Apache Kafka, event-driven architectures, message queues, or stream-processing systems. Experience designing authentication and authorization systems, including role-based access control. Experience building secure backend services that support structured data exchange, schema-driven integrations, or controlled data-sharing workflows. Strong debugging and performance-analysis skills in production backend systems.Preferred QualificationsExperience building rules engines, policy engines, workflow engines, audit services, or queryable event-history systems. Experience with schema registries, protobuf, Avro, JSON Schema, OpenTelemetry, PostgreSQL, OpenSearch, Elasticsearch, or similar technologies. Experience building backend systems for real-time collaboration, simulation, spatial platforms, command-and-control systems, or operational decision-support tools. Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, infrastructure-as-code, CI/CD, and modern DevOps practices. Familiarity with secure software development practices, audit logging, secrets management, and least-privilege access design. Experience working in regulated, government, defense, or enterprise security environments. Experience working with computer vision, natural language processing, or AI/ML teams.What Success Looks LikeIn this role, success means you can turn broad platform needs into clean backend services. You can design durable schemas, build secure service interfaces, reason through data exchange patterns, and create systems that remain understandable as the platform grows.What We Are Looking ForWe are looking for someone who is practical, security-minded, and comfortable working across product, infrastructure, and AI/ML teams. The ideal candidate can build dependable services without overcomplicating the architecture, and can communicate clearly about technical tradeoffs.