Staff Software Engineer | Backend

Formal is building a network security platform for the AI era. As agents gain access to sensitive data and production systems, organizations need control over the actions they take and the data they receive. We enforce those controls directly in the network path, with a shared policy layer for humans and agents across databases, infrastructure, APIs, and AI tools.

We are trusted by leading companies such as Cursor, Decagon, Notion, and more to solve problems across data security and compliance, data quality management, and infrastructure access.

Formal is backed by top-tiers VCs including Thrive Capital and Y Combinator with angel investors that include executives and founders from Datadog, Clickhouse, Plaid, and Vanta.

Formal is on a mission to build the best engineering team and we're looking for people who want to make outsized impact on shaping the product and building the company.

Our ideal candidate has a deep understanding of building scalable backend systems, a strong sense of ownership, and enjoys owning projects from inception to scaling it in production.

Our tech stack currently involves Golang, Rust, Temporal, Datastore protocols (Postgres, S3, Kafka, MySQL, Snowflake, Redshift, SSH), and AWS

• Design and develop a high performance data platform that can handle large volumes of data in real-time

• Build new product features from start to finish through to research, implementation, and maintenance

• Help improve performance and reliability of net new and existing features

• Lead any initiative you think may have a strong impact on Formal

• Design scalable services as Formal grows and processes more traffic

• 6+ years of relevant software development experience building data-intensive software platforms

• You value code simplicity and performance

• Strong knowledge of Golang and experience with its ecosystem

• Experience with streaming data processing frameworks such as Apache Kafka and Google Pub/Sub

• Experience debugging and optimizing complex production systems

• Experience working in DBs, OS, networking, or other systems-level environments

• Experience with containerization technologies (Docker, ECS, or Kubernetes) and infrastructure as a code technologies (Terraform)

• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work well within a team

• You are a strong problem solver and have solid production debugging skills

• You have worked in a fast, high-growth startup environment before

• You have experience using tools like Temporal and Render

• You have extensive knowledge of datastore protocols (Postgres, S3, Kafka)

• Familiarity with cloud computing platforms, such as Azure or GCP

• This role offers cash compensation and a stock options grant.

• The positioning of offers within a certain range depends on various factors, including: candidate experience, qualifications, skills, business requirements and geographical location.

• 100% medical, dental & vision insurance coverage for you

  • Partially covered for your dependents

• Flexible PTO