Staff Backend Engineer

STRAND is real-time architecture mapping for engineering teams running service-heavy systems. The product maps every dependency, tracks every change, and surfaces blast radius before anything ships. The backend that powers that needs to be fast, correct, and built to scale well beyond what most teams ever deal with. This role sits at the center of it.

You will work directly with the founding team on the core systems STRAND is built on. Staff-level here means you set the technical direction, not just execute it. The work is high-ownership and the decisions you make will shape the product for years.

What you will work on

• Own the backend systems that power STRAND's dependency graph engine, ingestion pipeline, and query layer.
• Design APIs and data models that serve both the product frontend and external integrations at scale.
• Drive architectural decisions across the backend and hold the bar on performance and correctness.
• Work closely with infrastructure and product to ship features that require deep backend and systems thinking.
• Establish engineering patterns and review standards that raise the quality floor across the team.
• Participate in on-call rotation and lead post-incident improvement work.

What we are looking for

• 7 or more years in backend engineering with meaningful time spent on systems that handle high throughput or complex graph-like data at scale.
• Deep experience in Go or Rust. We use Go. If you have strong opinions about systems languages, we want to hear them.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, consistency tradeoffs, and what it takes to build reliable services under load.
• Experience designing and evolving APIs used by both internal teams and external developers.
• You operate at staff level. You have shipped things that mattered and influenced engineering direction beyond your immediate work.
• You write clear technical documents and can defend a position without turning it into a debate.

How we work

• Fully remote. Work from wherever you do your best work.
• Async by default. Meetings exist when they need to, not as a reflex.
• Small team. Your decisions ship. There is no committee.
• We move fast and cut anything that does not serve the outcome.

What we offer

• Competitive salary and equity with straightforward terms.
• Five weeks paid vacation plus local public holidays.
• Health coverage based on your location.
• Home office or co-working stipend.
• Four months paid parental leave.
• Regular team off-sites.