Staff Backend Software Engineer - VC Backed Startups

Department: EPD

Location: Bay Area - Hybrid

Compensation: $170K – $250K • Offers Equity

Employment Type: FullTime

Join SignalFire’s Talent Network for Staff Backend Engineer Roles at VC-Backed Startups

🛑 This is not an application for a specific job. Instead, this is a way to get on the radar of VC-backed startups that are actively hiring Engineering talent. If you have any questions, please direct inquiries to talentnetwork@signalfire.com.

At SignalFire, we partner with top early-stage startups that are shaping the future of technology. Our portfolio spans 200+ innovative companies across AI, cybersecurity, healthtech, fintech, developer tools, and enterprise SaaS.

We’re looking to connect with exceptional Staff Backend Engineers who are excited about building scalable, high-performance systems at early-stage startups. By joining SignalFire’s Talent Network, your profile will be shared with our portfolio companies, giving you visibility into exclusive early-stage opportunities that may not be publicly listed.

Who Should Join?

We’re looking for engineers who are:
✔ Passionate about building backend architectures, APIs, and scalable distributed systems
✔ Excited about joining early-stage startups and working on high-performance backend infrastructure
✔ Experienced in optimizing databases, building cloud-native applications, and scaling backend systems

Typical Roles & Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain high-performance backend services

• Develop scalable APIs, microservices, and cloud architectures

• Optimize databases, caching layers, and event-driven architectures

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define backend strategy and align it with business goals

• Ensure backend systems are secure, fault-tolerant, and cost-efficient

• Establish best practices for software development, DevOps, and system monitoring

Common Qualifications

While each startup has its own hiring criteria, many staff backend engineering roles in our network look for:

• 5+ years of experience in backend development, with a track record of building scalable systems

• Expertise in backend frameworks (Node.js, Django, Flask, Ruby on Rails, FastAPI, Spring Boot)

• Strong experience with databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, DynamoDB, Redis)

• Proficiency with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and containerization tools (Docker, Kubernetes)

• Strong coding skills in Python, Go, Java, Node.js, or Ruby

• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure-as-code tools

💡 Technologies You Might Work With:

• Languages & Frameworks: Python, Golang, Java, JavaScript (Node.js), Ruby, Django, Flask, FastAPI, Ruby on Rails, Spring Boot

• Databases: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, DynamoDB, Redis

• Cloud & DevOps: AWS (Lambda, EC2, S3, RDS), GCP (Cloud Run, Firestore), Azure, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Jenkins, GitHub Actions

• Other Tools: REST APIs, GraphQL, WebSockets, Kafka, RabbitMQ, Elasticsearch

What Happens Next?

1. Submit your application to join SignalFire’s Talent Ecosystem.

2. We review applications on an ongoing basis to identify strong candidates.

3. If there’s a match, a SignalFire talent partner or a leader from one of our startups may reach out directly.

4. No match yet? We’ll keep your profile on file for future backend engineering roles in our portfolio.