Backend Engineer

Matternet is building the future of delivery with autonomous drone networks that move critical goods faster, cleaner, and at lower cost. We work with partners across healthcare, logistics, food, and retail to deliver everything from medical items to everyday essentials, safely and reliably. We're looking for a Backend Engineer to join the platform team as we build the cloud platform for M3, our next-generation aircraft. You'll build and own well-scoped services and pipelines within the M3 platform, working closely with senior engineers on design and growing toward owning larger components over time. This is a hands-on role in a safety-critical environment and a chance to help build a platform from the early stages. You'll work across our Node.js/TypeScript services and APIs, the data pipelines that move flight and telemetry data, and the tooling the aircraft program depends on. In this role, you will:

• Build and maintain backend services and APIs that integrate the M3 aircraft into delivery operations
• Build and extend the data pipelines that ingest and process M3 flight, vehicle, and telemetry data
• Write well-tested, observable, maintainable code, and participate actively in code review
• Help operate what you build by deploying, monitoring, and debugging services in production
• Provide technical support, triaging production and field issues and escalating when needed
• Collaborate with onboard software, operations, product, and safety teams

Requirements

• 3+ years building and operating production backend systems
• Backend proficiency in Node.js/TypeScript, or in a comparable modern language with the ability to ramp up quickly
• Solid fundamentals in API design, relational databases, and data modeling
• Working experience with cloud infrastructure, containers, and CI/CD
• Strong debugging instincts and a sense of ownership for code running in production
• Clear communication and an eagerness to seek out and apply feedback

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with fleet management, IoT/telemetry, or robotics systems
• Familiarity with event streaming or real-time messaging
• Experience building with NestJS
• Exposure to hardware-software integration or new device bring-up
• UAV, aerospace, logistics, or other operationally critical domain experience
• Experience using AI coding assistants to accelerate development

Benefits

At Matternet, we’re advancing a new era of logistics, one where autonomous drones deliver what matters faster, cleaner, and more efficiently. We know our mission is challenging, but it's worth it, and we are committed to taking care of the people who make it possible.

• Compensation: The expected starting range for this role is $160,000–$205,000, based on San Francisco Bay Area market data. This range reflects the target starting pay for candidates who meet the minimum qualifications for the role. Final compensation will depend on factors such as your experience, skills, level, location, and potential impact.
• Total Rewards: In addition to base pay, our compensation packages include equity and benefits such as medical, dental, vision, life, and disability coverage, flexible spending accounts (FSA), unlimited paid time off, company holidays, and a 401(k) plan.