Design, build, and scale backend services, APIs, and real-time systems supporting connected devices. Architect cloud infrastructure, handle device connectivity, data pipelines, authentication/authorization, observability, and collaborate with robotics, perception, mobile, and product teams to deliver reliable, high-performance production systems.
Who We Are
Sauron protects your family and home, bringing the innovations of autonomous robots and self-driving cars to residential security. Our team is led by veteran operators and engineers, alumni of Sonos, PayPal, Tesla, Apple, and Google. Sauron has raised a $27M seed round led by A* and Atomic with participation from other leading venture capital firms.
The Role
Sauron is building a new category of residential security powered by robotics, artificial intelligence, computer vision, and autonomous systems. Behind every intelligent decision our products make is a robust backend platform that securely processes data, coordinates devices, powers customer experiences, and enables real-time operations at scale.
We are looking for a highly skilled, thoughtful, and collaborative Backend Engineer to help design, develop, and scale the infrastructure that powers our products. You will work across cloud services, distributed systems, APIs, device connectivity, data pipelines, and operational tooling to support a growing fleet of intelligent security systems deployed in the real world.
The ideal candidate is passionate about building reliable systems, enjoys solving complex technical challenges, and thrives in a highly collaborative environment. You'll help shape our platform architecture while contributing directly to products that protect families and homes every day.
You Will Contribute By
- Designing and building scalable backend services that power Sauron's products and operations.
- Developing APIs and service interfaces used by mobile applications, web applications, and connected devices.
- Building real-time systems that process telemetry, sensor data, video events, and security alerts.
- Architecting cloud infrastructure that supports reliable communication between edge devices and backend services.
- Designing secure authentication, authorization, and identity management systems.
- Building event-driven and distributed systems capable of operating at large scale.
- Working closely with robotics, perception, mobile, and product teams to deliver end-to-end solutions.
- Translating business and product requirements into high-quality, maintainable production systems.
- Improving system performance, reliability, observability, and operational excellence.
- Being proactive, self-starting, and continuously learning new technologies, methods, and approaches to solve challenging problems.
Your Background Includes
- 5-7+ years of software development experience, preferably building production backend systems.
- Strong proficiency in one or more backend languages such as Go, Python, Rust, Java, or C++.
- Experience designing and operating distributed systems and microservice architectures.
- Strong understanding of API design, including REST, gRPC, and event-driven communication patterns.
- Experience working with relational and non-relational databases such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, or DynamoDB.
- Experience deploying and operating applications in cloud environments, preferably AWS.
- Familiarity with containerization technologies such as Docker and orchestration platforms like Kubernetes.
- Strong understanding of system design, performance optimization, reliability, and scalability.
- Experience implementing monitoring, logging, and observability solutions.
- Excellent debugging, testing, and software engineering fundamentals.
Nice to Have (Familiarity With / Desire to Learn)
- Experience working with robotics, autonomous systems, IoT, or connected devices.
- Knowledge of streaming systems such as Kafka, NATS, or RabbitMQ.
- Experience building real-time data processing pipelines.
- Familiarity with video processing, computer vision infrastructure, or large-scale media systems.
- Experience with infrastructure-as-code and cloud automation tools.
- Understanding of security best practices and secure system design.
- Experience working in fast-paced startup environments.
- Experience taking products from 0→1 and scaling them through rapid growth.
We Value
1. The Power of "We": "Align, then Accelerate"
We celebrate as a team and troubleshoot as a team.
The goal is the mission, not the credit.
2. High Challenge, Low Ego: "Respect the person, debate the idea."
Be ruthless with problems, but kind to people.
Raise the bar, lower the shield.
3. Speak Up: "Silence is a setback."
Your perspective is a requirement, not a suggestion.
Speak the hard truths early so we can fix them fast.
4. Integrity in Motion: "Own the outcome, not just the task."
Do what you say you'll do.
If it breaks, fix it. If it works, make it better.
5. Humanity at the Core: "Relationships over transactions."
Earn trust through empathy and consistency.
Anticipate needs before they become requests.
Compensation: $190-230k base + equity + benefits.
We are focused on building a diverse and inclusive workforce. If you're excited about this role but do not meet 100% of the qualifications listed above, we encourage you to apply.
Sauron is an Equal Opportunity Employer and considers applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetics, or any other basis forbidden under federal, state, or local law.
Please review our CCPA policies here.
The base pay range for this role is $200,000 – $230,000 per year.
Sauron San Francisco, California, USA Office
San Francisco, CA, United States
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