Senior Software Engineer, Backend
Location: Long Beach, California, United States
Department: IT
At Vast, our mission is to contribute to a future where billions of people are living and thriving in space. Vast is developing next-generation space stations to ensure a continuous human presence in space for America and its allies, enabling advanced microgravity research and manufacturing, and unlocking a new space economy for government, corporate, and private customers. Using an incremental, hardware-rich and low-cost approach, Vast is rapidly developing its multi-module Haven Station. Haven Demo’s 2025 success made Vast the only operational commercial space station company to fly and operate its own spacecraft. Next, Haven-1 is expected to become the world’s first commercial space station when it launches, followed by additional Haven modules to enable permanent human presence by 2030. Our team is all-in, committed to executing our mission safely and on time. If you want to work with the most talented people on Earth furthering space exploration for humanity, come join us.
Vast is looking for a Senior Software Engineer, Backend reporting to the Senior Manager, Software Engineering to support the development of the systems that will be required for the design and build of artificial-gravity human-rated space stations.
This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location.
Responsibilities:
- Design, build, and maintain scalable backend services, tools, and pipelines supporting mission-critical security systems.
- Collaborate with cross-functional engineering teams to design and implement secure, high-performance services and APIs.
- Develop and maintain backend infrastructure for authentication, authorization, and secure data handling.
- Establish and promote best practices for backend architecture, security, and code quality at scale.
- Build systems that are reliable, observable, and capable of supporting a rapidly growing codebase and engineering team.
Minimum Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
- 6+ years of backend software engineering experience, with exposure to security-focused systems (e.g., IAM, API security, certificate management).
- Strong experience building and operating backend services in cloud environments.
- Proficiency in at least one modern programming language (Python, Go, Rust, C++, etc.).
- Solid understanding of distributed systems, API design, and backend architecture.
- Experience working in Linux environments, including command line and scripting.
Preferred Skills & Experience:
- Experience solving ambiguous, complex backend problems in fast-paced environments.
- Familiarity with DevOps practices and tools (Docker, Kubernetes).
- Experience designing and scaling APIs and microservices.
- Background in one or more security domains (e.g., cryptography, network security, infrastructure security).
- Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate across teams.
- Ownership mindset with a bias toward action and continuous improvement.
Additional Requirements:
- Ability to travel up to 10% of the time.
- Willingness to work overtime, or weekends to support critical mission milestones.
- Ability to lift up to 25lbs unassisted.
- Specific certifications, as appropriate.
Pay Range:
- Senior Software Engineer, Backend: $159,000 - $226,000
- Staff Software Engineer, Backend: $188,600 - $267,000
U.S. EXPORT CONTROL COMPLIANCE STATUS
The person hired will have access to information and items subject to U.S. export controls, and therefore, must either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.62 or otherwise eligible for deemed export licensing. This status includes U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents (green card holders), and asylees and refugees with such status granted, not pending.EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
There are more than 50,000 engineering jobs:
Subscribe to membership and unlock all jobs
Engineering Jobs
60,000+ jobs from 4,500+ well-funded companies
Updated Daily
New jobs are added every day as companies post them
Refined Search
Use filters like skill, location, etc to narrow results
Become a member
🥳🥳🥳 452 happy customers and counting...
Overall, over 80% of customers chose to renew their subscriptions after the initial sign-up.
To try it out
For active job seekers
For those who are passive looking
Cancel anytime
Frequently Asked Questions
- We prioritize job seekers as our customers, unlike bigger job sites, by charging a small fee to provide them with curated access to the best companies and up-to-date jobs. This focus allows us to deliver a more personalized and effective job search experience.
- We've got over 200,000 jobs from 15,000+ vetted companies. No fake or sleazy jobs here!
- We aggregate jobs from 15,000+ companies' career pages, so you can be sure that you're getting the most up-to-date and relevant jobs.
- We're the only job board *for* software engineers, *by* software engineers… in case you needed a reminder! We add thousands of new jobs daily and offer powerful search filters just for you. 🛠️
- Every single hour! We add 2,000-3,000 new jobs daily, so you'll always have fresh opportunities. 🚀
- Typically, job searches take 3-6 months. EchoJobs helps you spend more time applying and less time hunting. 🎯
- Check daily! We're always updating with new jobs. Set up job alerts for even quicker access. 📅
What Fellow Engineers Say