Column Software
Senior Software Engineer (Backend)
Similar Jobs
Consumer Web • Software • Travel
Design, implement, and maintain scalable, secure, high-performance backend systems and public-facing APIs. Collaborate with Product and Data Science teams, lead initiatives improving efficiency and system performance, and support customer satisfaction. Work may involve distributed systems, pricing engines, identity management, authentication, authorization, API versioning, deprecation, and rate limiting.
Top Skills:
APIsAuth0AWSKotlinNode.jsTypescript
Fintech • Payments • Real Estate • Software • Financial Services
Design, build, and scale backend services and integrations for payment, billing, identity, and partner systems. Own API scoping, design, implementation, deployment, and production operations with minimal oversight. Build fault-tolerant systems, data pipelines, and scalable architectures while collaborating with product, design, engineering, and external partners. Contribute to reliability monitoring, observability, automation, technical standards, and mentoring in a distributed team.
Top Skills:
Aurora RdsAWSCdkCi/CdDatadogDockerDynamoDBEksElasticacheGitGithub ActionsGradleJavaJunitJvmMessage QueuesRest ApisService-Oriented ArchitectureSnowflakeSpringTerraform
Big Data • Fintech • Mobile • Payments • Financial Services
Build and scale backend data platforms and services for real-time loan origination and financial reporting. Lead quarterly delivery, guide engineers, define technical plans, collaborate with product and design partners, improve reliability and operational practices, monitor service metrics, participate in on-call support, uphold engineering quality standards, and mentor team members. The role requires developing highly available distributed systems and scalable data pipelines using technologies such as Python, Kotlin, AWS, MySQL, Kubernetes, Spark, and Airflow.
Top Skills:
AirflowAWSKotlinKubernetesMySQLPythonSpark
Column is the AI-powered software platform for public information. We build automated tools and workflow solutions that help governments, law firms, and media organizations notify the public. Today, thousands of publishers and tens of thousands of agencies, firms, and individuals rely on Column to keep their communities informed every day. We’re reimagining how public information connects people, institutions, and media.
We're a remote-first team of engineers, designers, and builders who are committed to creating software that supports an informed public.
What You’ll Do
You will design, build and scale the systems that power our publishing platform. Our architecture spans modern frontend technologies and a distributed backend built on Firebase and GCP. This role is for a senior engineer who can drive architectural clarity, lead complex projects with clarity and uphold high engineering standards in a TypeScript-heavy environment. You will:
- Establish and enforce repeatable, scalable engineering patterns through CI, code review and technical leadership.
- Lead development for our backend services and integrations, proactively managing system health across technical and business teams.
- Work alongside a small, senior-leaning team who are responsible for the core user experience, application health, and growth initiatives
- Collaborate with customer-facing teams and peers to support a culture of continuous growth and knowledge sharing
- Work in areas outside of your usual comfort zone and show motivation for learning and personal growth
- Systematic thinker with clear technical opinions and curiosity for root causes.
About You
Minimum Qualifications
- 5+ years in full-stack or backend development, with 3+ years writing production React applications and deep experience with serverless backends
- Hands-on with CI/CD, observability and performance tooling (DataDog, Sentry, CircleCI power user)
- Strong proficiency in SQL
- Experience as a senior engineer at a company with <100 engineers
- Demonstrated ability to take ownership of projects and deliver high-quality, cost-effective and reliable technical solutions.
- Self-motivated with a strong drive to work in a startup environment, leading and shipping technical projects in collaboration with multiple experienced engineers.
- Based in North America (EST to PST time zone)
Preferred Qualifications
- Customer-facing engineering experience
- Experience architecting or scaling document-generation pipelines, such as templating, layout rendering, or file delivery services that integrate with APIs or cloud storage
- Experience in product engineering for a platform supporting similar users such as government agencies
- Opinionated about Node / Typescript standards and deployment/ testing strategies
Compensation & Benefits
Base salary range: $160-190K
Benefits: Comprehensive health coverage, flexible PTO, remote-first culture.
What you need to know about the San Francisco Tech Scene
San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area attracts more startup funding than any other region in the world. Home to Stanford University and UC Berkeley, leading VC firms and several of the world’s most valuable companies, the Bay Area is the place to go for anyone looking to make it big in the tech industry. That said, San Francisco has a lot to offer beyond technology thanks to a thriving art and music scene, excellent food and a short drive to several of the country’s most beautiful recreational areas.
Key Facts About San Francisco Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 365,500; 13.9% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
- Major Tech Employers: Google, Apple, Salesforce, Meta
- Key Industries: Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, fintech, consumer technology, software
- Funding Landscape: $50.5 billion in venture capital funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
- Notable Investors: Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Greylock Partners, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins
- Research Centers and Universities: Stanford University; University of California, Berkeley; University of San Francisco; Santa Clara University; Ames Research Center; Center for AI Safety; California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
