Senior Backend Engineer/Staff Engineer at Prophetx

Job description

Role Overview We’re looking for a Staff Backend Engineer (IC4) to set technical direction across multiple teams and own our most complex, high-impact systems. You’ll solve ambiguous problems at the platform level, shape architecture for our exchange and trading infrastructure, and raise the engineering bar across the organization. Key Responsibilities What You’ll Do • Define and drive the technical vision and architecture for critical systems that span multiple teams. • Lead cross-team initiatives from design through delivery, aligning engineering, product, and compliance stakeholders. • Own the reliability, latency, and scalability of core exchange systems, and lead incident response and postmortems for major issues. • Make and document key architectural decisions, balancing innovation, risk, and regulatory requirements. • Break ambiguous, org-level problems into workstreams and delegate effectively to senior and junior engineers. • Partner with product and leadership to influence roadmap and prioritization with technical insight. • Proactively seek development opportunities and share knowledge with peers and junior engineers. Skills, Knowledge and Expertise What We’re Looking For • 7+ years of backend experience, with deep expertise in Go, Java, C++, or Python (Go strongly preferred) • Proven track record designing and operating highly scalable, low-latency, real-time distributed systems in production • Deep expertise in microservices, event-driven architecture (Kafka), and RESTful and WebSocket API design • Strong knowledge of SQL and NoSQL data modeling and performance tuning • Extensive experience with AWS or equivalent, Docker and Kubernetes, and CI/CD at scale • Experience with observability and incident management for production systems • Experience in trading, exchange, fintech, or other high-throughput transactional systems is strongly preferred • Demonstrated cross-team leadership and the ability to explain complex tradeoffs to technical and non-technical audiences • Strong communicator, able to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences • Proactive, growth-focused, and highly adaptable with a strong sense of ownership Why Join Us! Compensation & Ownership • Competitive compensation aligned to role and market • Equity opportunities so you share in what we’re building • A clear connection between impact and reward Health & Wellbeing • Medical, dental, and vision coverage • Flexible time off built on trust and accountability • A culture that respects your time and avoids unnecessary meetings Remote & Flexible Work • Fully remote within the U.S. • Flexibility to work in the way that helps you do your best work The Role • Own the most complex, high-impact systems behind our exchange and trading infrastructure, and set technical direction across multiple teams • Take on a high-impact IC role with direct influence on roadmap, architecture, and the engineering bar across the organization • Help scale low-latency, compliant exchange systems on a platform that’s already live and regulated

Requirements

Must-haves

What You’ll Do
Define and drive the technical vision and architecture for critical systems that span multiple teams.
Lead cross-team initiatives from design through delivery, aligning engineering, product, and compliance stakeholders.
Own the reliability, latency, and scalability of core exchange systems, and lead incident response and postmortems for major issues.
Make and document key architectural decisions, balancing innovation, risk, and regulatory requirements.
Break ambiguous, org-level problems into workstreams and delegate effectively to senior and junior engineers.
Partner with product and leadership to influence roadmap and prioritization with technical insight.
Proactively seek development opportunities and share knowledge with peers and junior engineers.
Skills, Knowledge and Expertise
What We’re Looking For
Proven track record designing and operating highly scalable, low-latency, real-time distributed systems in production
Deep expertise in microservices, event-driven architecture (Kafka), and RESTful and WebSocket API design
Strong knowledge of SQL and NoSQL data modeling and performance tuning
Extensive experience with AWS or equivalent, Docker and Kubernetes, and CI/CD at scale
Experience with observability and incident management for production systems
Demonstrated cross-team leadership and the ability to explain complex tradeoffs to technical and non-technical audiences
Strong communicator, able to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences
Proactive, growth-focused, and highly adaptable with a strong sense of ownership
Why Join Us!
Compensation & Ownership
Competitive compensation aligned to role and market
Equity opportunities so you share in what we’re building

Nice-to-haves

7+ years of backend experience, with deep expertise in Go, Java, C++, or Python (Go strongly preferred)
Experience in trading, exchange, fintech, or other high-throughput transactional systems is strongly preferred

Application prep

Use the role’s language and application details while tailoring your materials.

Keywords to mirror

gojavapythonapisqlawsdockerkubernetesci/cd

Platform: pinpoint
Effort: medium

Benefits

Benefits detected in the listing.

Dental

Vision