The Senior Backend Engineer will design, develop, and scale backend systems, APIs, and data pipelines for AI applications, while mentoring junior engineers and ensuring system performance.
Archer is an aerospace company based in San Jose, California building an all-electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft with a mission to advance the benefits of sustainable air mobility. We are designing, manufacturing, and operating an all-electric aircraft that can carry four passengers while producing minimal noise.
Our sights are set high and our problems are hard, and we believe that diversity in the workplace is what makes us smarter, drives better insights, and will ultimately lift us all to success. We are dedicated to cultivating an equitable and inclusive environment that embraces our differences, and supports and celebrates all of our team members.
What You’ll Do
As a Senior Backend Engineer, you will architect, develop, and scale the core services and infrastructure that power our cutting-edge AI products. You will bridge the gap between complex AI models and production-ready software, ensuring that our AI-driven insights are delivered reliably and at scale.
- Design and maintain scalable backend systems, APIs, and data pipelines to support applications powered by AI
- Leverage infrastructure-as-code tooling to build and manage backend environments
- Work cross-functionally with AI Research, Engineering, and Data Science teams to deploy and monitor scalable ML and optimization models
- Own the full development lifecycle—from design and development to deployment, monitoring, and maintenance
- Monitor system performance and reliability, and respond to production issues with effective debugging and root cause analysis
- Write clean, maintainable, and well-documented code
- Mentor and guide junior team members with diverse technical backgrounds, fostering a culture of engineering excellence and software development best practices
- BS/MS/PhD degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field
- 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a heavy focus on backend systems.
- Solid understanding of microservices architecture, distributed systems, and API design
- Strong proficiency in Python and/or Rust, ideally both
- Solid experience with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes)
- Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure
- Experience with infrastructure-as-code tools such as OpenTofu/Terraform and configuration management with Ansible
- Solid experience with relational databases (eg. PostgresQL), in-memory databases (e.g., Valkey/Redis), and columnar databases built on top of Parquet or similar formats
- Familiarity with GitOps practices (eg Argo CD) and Kubernetes deployments
- Able to scale yourself with AI coding assistants while still fully understanding and taking ownership of all code you commit
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with a proven ability to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Experience with AI/ML ops and tooling
- Rust experience with async runtimes (Tokio), serialization (Cap'n Proto), and message-driven architectures is highly valued
- Experience with message brokers (NATS, Kafka) and event-driven architectures
- Experience building high-throughput data pipelines
- Background in high-availability, real-time systems or event-driven architectures
- Prior experience or a deep interest in aerospace, robotics, or autonomous systems
Please note that this job description is intended to provide a general overview of the position and does not include an exhaustive list of responsibilities and qualifications
At Archer we aim to attract, retain, and motivate talent that possess the skills and leadership necessary to grow our business. We drive a pay-for-performance culture and reward performance that supports the Company’s business strategy. For this position we are targeting a base pay between $145,000.00 - $180,000.00. Actual compensation offered will be determined by factors such as job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.
Archer is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusivity in the workplace. All aspects of employment are decided on the basis of merit, qualifications, and business needs. We do not discriminate based upon race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.Archer is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to job applicants with physical or mental disabilities, and those with sincerely held religious beliefs. Applicants who may require reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should provide their name and contact information to Archer’s People Team at [email protected]. Reasonable accommodations will be determined on a case-by-case basis.Information collected and processed as part of any job applications you choose to submit is subject to Archer's Candidate Privacy Policy.Archer is unable to provide work visa sponsorship for this position at the present time.Archer is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusivity in the workplace. All aspects of employment are decided on the basis of merit, qualifications, and business needs. We do not discriminate based upon race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.Archer Aviation does not engage with external recruiting agencies/individual recruiters with whom it does not have a prior written agreement. Archer reserves the right to make use of any unsolicited resumes that it receives and bears no responsibility for payment of any fees asserted from the use of unsolicited resumes. If you are a recruiting agency or individual recruiter wishing to do business with Archer, please reach out to [email protected]. All employment processes are managed by the Archer People Team.
Archer Aviation San Francisco, California, USA Office
San Francisco, CA, United States
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