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Staff Backend Engineer

Sift

Marina del Rey, CAHybridFull-time$200–260K/yrPosted 1y agoVerified open 6 days ago
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At a glance

Compensation
$200–260K/yr
Location
Marina del Rey, CAHybrid
Schedule
Full-time
Work Authorization
US work authorization required

Requirements

Credentials this posting asks for.

Bachelor's degree

Job overview

Sift is hiring a Staff Backend Engineer. Sift is a data infrastructure platform for hardware engineering teams that turns high‑frequency telemetry into engineering insights for mission‑critical systems such as rockets, satellites, autonomous vehicles, energy and defense platforms. The company, founded by former SpaceX engineers, builds foundational systems to support the AI era for physical systems.

Key focus areas include Design, build, and operate backend systems that process and store large volumes of real‑time telemetry data., Own features end‑to‑end, from design through post‑launch improvement., and Collaborate with frontend, design, and data teams to ensure features solve real customer problems..

Successful candidates bring Bachelor's Degree In Computer Science, Bachelor's Degree In Engineering, and Bachelor's Degree In Physics. Important skills include Go, Rust, Python, Linux, Networking Fundamentals, and SQL. Preferred (not required): Streaming Data Systems, Time-Series Data Systems, Kafka, and Apache Flink.

Skills & qualifications

RequiredNice to have

Skills

GoRustPythonLinuxNetworking FundamentalsSQLIndexingDatabase MigrationsDatabase TuningREST APIsgRPCProtocol BuffersDebuggingProduction-First MindsetKubernetesPrometheusArgo CDDistributed Systems FundamentalsStreaming Data SystemsTime-Series Data SystemsKafkaApache FlinkTimescaleDBPerformance OptimizationProfilingObservability ToolsDatadogGrafanaHardware EnvironmentsTelemetry-Heavy EnvironmentsPostgreSQLReactTypeScriptApache ArrowDataFusionParquetAWSDockerGitHub Actions

Qualifications

Bachelor's Degree in Computer ScienceBachelor's Degree in EngineeringBachelor's Degree in PhysicsBachelor's Degree in STEM Discipline7+ Years Backend Experience7+ Years Infrastructure ExperienceUS Person Required

Full job description

About Sift Sift is the data infrastructure platform for hardware engineering teams. Sift turns high-frequency telemetry into engineering insights for mission-critical systems. Teams use Sift to build and operate rockets, satellites, autonomous vehicles, energy systems, defense platforms, and more.

Founded by former SpaceX engineers who built the tools behind Dragon and Starlink, Sift is building the data infrastructure to herald the AI era for physical systems.

In This Role, You'll:

  • Design, build, and operate backend systems that process and store large volumes of real-time telemetry data.

  • Own features end-to-end, from design to post-launch improvement.

  • Collaborate with Frontend, Design, and Data teams to ensure features solve real customer problems.

  • Optimize backend systems for performance, scalability, and reliability.

  • Contribute to system evolution—migrating services, introducing caches, and improving storage or indexing layers.

  • Participate in on-call rotations, debugging live issues, and improving observability.

  • Raise the bar through code reviews, shared patterns, and mentorship.

The Skillset You'll Bring:

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, or another STEM discipline

  • 7+ years of experience in backend or infrastructure roles

  • Strong understanding of distributed systems fundamentals—state, fault tolerance, recovery.

  • Experience with Go, Rust, or Python, and strong Linux/networking fundamentals.

  • Deep knowledge of SQL and operational database experience (indexing, migrations, tuning).

  • Experience building and scaling APIs (REST, gRPC/Protobuf).

  • Strong debugging skills and a production-first mindset.

  • Familiarity with Kubernetes, Prometheus, Argo CD, and other modern infrastructure tools.

Bonus Points:

  • Experience with streaming or time-series data systems (Kafka, Flink, TimescaleDB, etc.).

  • Experience with performance tuning and profiling at query or service layers.

  • Familiarity with observability tools (Datadog, Grafana).

  • Background in hardware or telemetry-heavy environments.

Engineering at SIFT: You’ll join a tight-knit team of world-class engineers building foundational systems for next-gen machines. Technologies you'll work with may include:

  • Frontend & Backend : Go, gRPC, PostgreSQL, Protobuf, React, TypeScript

  • Data Infrastructure : Apache Arrow, DataFusion, Flink, Kafka, Parquet, Rust

  • Ops & Tooling : AWS, Kubernetes, Docker, GitHub Actions, Prometheus, Argo CD, Grafana, Linux

Location: Sift’s headquarters is in Marina Del Rey, CA (Next to LAX). We collaborate in person twice a week—on Mondays and Thursdays —and come together for a full week every two months. We are open to relocating candidates to LA or working from our San Francisco office for the right candidate.

Salary range: $200,000 - $260,000 per year. Plus equity and benefits.

Eligibility: U.S. Person Required : Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual such as an asylee or refugee in compliance with ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) / EAR (Export Administration Regulations) regulations.

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