Lead Backend Engineer

Lead Backend EngineerLocation: Hybrid, Washington, DCAs Lead Backend Engineer, you will own major backend architecture decisions and guide the implementation of reliable, secure, and scalable services. You will work across microservices, data schemas, messaging systems, real time media infrastructure, and access control systems. You should be comfortable operating at both the systems design level and the code review level. 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 clean backend infrastructure, designing durable data models, and leading other engineers through complex technical work. Go will be the primary implementation language for this role.ResponsibilitiesLead the design and development of backend services using Go.Own core backend work related to real time communication capabilities, including WebRTC, LiveKit, SFU architectures, or comparable media platforms.Architect and implement cloud based, microservice oriented systems that are reliable, observable, secure, and maintainable.Design service to service communication patterns, API contracts, event flows, and integration points between distributed services.Develop and maintain data schemas, domain models, persistence strategies, and data access patterns across backend systems.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 directly with computer vision, NLP, AI/ML, frontend, DevOps, and security stakeholders to translate requirements into well structured backend architecture.Review code, mentor engineers, establish engineering standards, and help the team make sound technical tradeoffs.Improve system performance, scalability, reliability, and debuggability across production services.Required Qualifications7+ 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.Experience working on or with AI/ML platforms and communicating with AI/ML teams.Strong understanding of microservice architecture, service boundaries, API design, inter service communication, and distributed systems tradeoffs.Extensive experience with data modeling, schema design, relational and/or non relational databases, and long term data maintainability.Experience designing authentication and authorization systems, including role based access control.Experience leading technical projects, mentoring engineers, reviewing designs, and guiding implementation across a team.Strong debugging and performance analysis skills in production backend systems.Ability to communicate clearly with both technical and non technical stakeholders.Preferred QualificationsHands on experience with WebRTC, LiveKit, or other real time media streaming systems.Experience with Apache Kafka, event driven architectures, message queues, or stream processing systems.Experience building backend systems for real time collaboration.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 leading data modeling efforts for large distributed backend systems.Experience working in regulated, government, defense, or enterprise security environments.Experience with observability tooling, including structured logging, metrics, tracing, and alerting.Work Authorization and Clearance EligibilityCandidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States. An active U.S. government security clearance is not required for this role. Candidates who currently hold, have previously held, or may be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance are preferred. Certain customer, contract, or regulatory requirements may require additional eligibility verification.BenefitsHealth, dental, and vision benefits for eligible employees.Flexible work environment.Opportunity to work on advanced computer vision, natural language processing, AI, optimization, and backend infrastructure problems.High impact role with meaningful ownership over technical direction.Collaborative team environment with direct visibility into product and company strategy.