Software Engineer - Backend/Cloud Services

About This Role:

The Software Engineer (Backend / Cloud Services) designs, builds, and maintains the core backend systems that power an intelligent, cloud-connected irrigation ecosystem for home gardeners and growers. This role develops scalable APIs, manages databases, implements the irrigation scheduling engine, and integrates backend systems with AWS IoT Core for secure device communication. The engineer ensures the reliability, performance, and scalability of cloud-connected services supporting mobile and web applications, enabling seamless data flow between users, devices, and the cloud.

Demonstrates behavior that is consistent with the company’s values of Customer Satisfaction, Innovation, Family, and Social Responsibility.

Essential Job Functions/Tasks:

• Designs, develops, and maintains RESTful APIs connecting mobile and web applications to backend services.
• Develops, refines, and maintains the irrigation scheduling engine, optimizing logic for water efficiency, environmental conditions, and user preferences.
• Builds and manages database schemas, queries, and data models to support device telemetry, scheduling, user data, and analytics.
• Integrates with AWS IoT Core to handle secure device connectivity, telemetry ingestion, command processing, and synchronization with the cloud.
• Implements core business logic and automation for irrigation, notifications, and AI-driven recommendations.
• Collaborates closely with the Machine Learning Engineer to integrate predictive models and automate decision-making based on environmental or device data.
• Designs and maintains telemetry ingestion pipelines to process high-frequency data from connected devices.
• Ensures backend systems meet performance, reliability, and scalability requirements through monitoring, testing, and proactive optimization.
• Implements security best practices, data protection policies, and access controls across backend systems.
• Writes unit and integration tests for backend services and collaborates with the QA/Automation Engineer to ensure coverage, CI/CD integration, and deployment quality.
• Collaborates with frontend, mobile, and IoT engineers to deliver consistent and efficient user experiences.
• Documents backend architecture, APIs, and data flows to support internal development and cross-team alignment.
• Troubleshoots and resolves production issues, ensuring minimal downtime and high system availability.
• Evaluates and adopts emerging backend technologies, frameworks, and design patterns to improve system performance and maintainability.
• Focuses on the voice of the customer and continuously improves products and services to deliver meaningful user value.

Education/Training Required and Preferred:  

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical field, or a combination of education and relevant work experience.

Experience Required and Preferred:

• Minimum 2–4 years of experience developing backend systems, APIs, and database-driven cloud services in a production environment.

What You Bring:

• Proficiency in backend programming languages such as Python, Node.js, or Go in a production environment.
• Hands-on experience with AWS services required including but not limited to IoT Core, Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, RDS, S3, and CloudWatch. Device Shadows preferred.
• Ability to write clean, testable, and maintainable code in a collaborative production environment.               
• Strong understanding of database architecture, indexing, and performance optimization (SQL and NoSQL).
• Knowledge of IoT communication protocols (MQTT, HTTP, WebSockets) and secure communication methods such as mTLS.
• Familiarity with event-driven, serverless, and microservice architectures for building scalable, cloud-connected systems.
• Experience implementing authentication and authorization frameworks (OAuth 2.0, JWT).
• Understanding of DevOps practices, containerization, and CI/CD pipelines (Docker, Bitbucket Pipelines, GitHub Actions, or similar).
• Ability to design scalable systems that handle high data throughput and real-time updates.
• Strong debugging, problem-solving, and analytical skills.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams in an agile environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Familiarity with Agile development practices preferred.

What We Offer:

• Amazing corporate culture - we walk the walk when it comes to our values!
• FUN company events!
• Company donation matching and volunteer rewards
• Career development opportunities and profit sharing bonus

Follow us on LinkedIn, check out our rave reviews on Glassdoor, and learn more about our company culture on our career site: http://corporate.hunterindustries.com/careers 

Hunter is a global leader in the irrigation, outdoor lighting, dispensing technology, and custom manufacturing industries. Driving our continued success is the combined energy and talents of the nearly 4,000 people on our team. Together, we create a diverse array of products that can be seen all over the world, from residential landscapes to national landmarks, stadiums, parks, hotels, and municipal buildings. 

Hunter Industries and its Family of Companies is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, military and veteran status, national origin, race, religion, sexual orientation, or any other applicable legally protected status or characteristic.

The salary for this opportunity ranges from $95,000 to $118,000

The Company complies with all federal/state/local regulations in regard to pay. The above represents the national average for this job requisition. Compensation offered will be determined by qualifications, prior experience, and other job-related factors.  The actual compensation range may vary based on geographic location of the selected candidate.