{"schemaVersion":"jobsearcher.job.v1","id":"640cbfaa9c6494ada97964ad","url":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/640cbfaa9c6494ada97964ad","canonicalUrl":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/640cbfaa9c6494ada97964ad","title":"Staff Backend Engineer","description":"At Sift, we're redefining how modern machines are built, tested, and operated. Our platform gives engineers real-time observability over high-frequency telemetry—eliminating bottlenecks and enabling faster, more reliable development.\r\nSift was born from our work at SpaceX on Dragon, Falcon, Starlink, and Starship—where scaling telemetry, debugging flight systems, and ensuring mission reliability demanded new infrastructure. Founded by a team from SpaceX, Google, and Palantir, Sift is built for mission-critical systems where precision and scalability are non-negotiable.\r\nAs an early engineer focused on our data infrastructure, you won't just write code—you'll define core architecture and help scale a real-time telemetry platform from the ground up. You'll work on complex backend systems designed to ingest, store, and serve millions of high-frequency data points per second, enabling faster iteration cycles for some of the most advanced engineering teams in the world.\r\nIn This Role, You'll:\r\nDesign and build a horizontally scalable platform for ingesting millions of hardware sensor data points per second\r\nDevelop durable, efficient database solutions to support real-time reads and large-scale analytics workloads\r\nPioneer data architecture by integrating recent innovations in streaming and storage, including cloud-native and diskless designs\r\nHelp define engineering culture, standards, and processes\r\nCollaborate closely with peers on architecture, design, code reviews, and scaling strategies\r\nThe Skillset You'll Bring:\r\nBachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, or another STEM discipline\r\n7+ years of experience in backend, infrastructure, or data engineering roles\r\nHands-on experience with event-time-based stream processing or streaming SQL systems using tools like Apache Flink, Kafka Streams, Beam, or similar\r\nProficiency with relational and time-series databases like PostgreSQL, Druid, Pinot, TimescaleDB, or equivalent\r\nExperience with large-scale distributed systems or low-latency backend services, ideally written in Go, Rust, or Python\r\nFamiliarity with DevOps and cloud infrastructure tools such as Kubernetes, Prometheus, ArgoCD, and Terraform\r\nStrong communication skills and a collaborative approach to problem-solving\r\nBonus Points\r\nFamiliarity with telemetry data from hardware systems, high-throughput ingest pipelines, or columnar storage formats like Apache Arrow and Parquet\r\nExperience building resilient, performant systems that scale to billions of records\r\nCuriosity about new data paradigms and eagerness to evaluate and integrate emerging tools and techniques\r\nEngineering at Sift\r\nYou'll join a tight-knit team of world-class engineers building foundational systems for next-gen machines. Technologies you'll work with may include:\r\nFrontend & Backend : Go, gRPC, PostgreSQL, Protobuf, React, TypeScript\r\nData Infrastructure : Apache Arrow, DataFusion, Flink, Kafka, Parquet, Rust\r\nOps & Tooling : AWS, Kubernetes, Docker, GitHub Actions, Prometheus, Argo CD, Grafana, Linux\r\nLocation\r\nSift's headquarters is in El Segundo, CA . We collaborate in person twice a week—on Mondays and Thursdays —and come together for a full week every two months. While we prefer team members to be local, we're open to relocating candidates to LA or considering remote work from the San Francisco area for the right candidate.\r\nSalary range: $200,000 - $250,000 per year. Plus equity and benefits.\r\nEligibility\r\nU.S. Person Required : Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual such as an asylee or refugee in compliance with ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) / EAR (Export Administration Regulations) regulations.\r\nJ-18808-Ljbffr","company":"Sift Stack","rawCompany":"sift stack","city":"El Segundo","state":"CA","isRemote":false,"isActive":true,"createdAt":"2026-04-09T15:27:42.753Z","occupations":[{"code":"15-1252.00","title":"Software Developers","slug":"software-developers"},{"code":"15-1299.08","title":"Computer Systems Engineers/Architects","slug":"computer-systems-engineers-architects"},{"code":"15-1243.01","title":"Data Warehousing Specialists","slug":"data-warehousing-specialists"}],"industries":[{"code":"541512","title":"Computer Systems Design Services","slug":"computer-systems-design-services"},{"code":"513210","title":"Software Publishers","slug":"software-publishers"},{"code":"541511","title":"Custom Computer Programming Services","slug":"custom-computer-programming-services"}],"jobPosting":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"JobPosting","title":"Staff Backend Engineer","description":"At Sift, we're redefining how modern machines are built, tested, and operated. Our platform gives engineers real-time observability over high-frequency telemetry—eliminating bottlenecks and enabling faster, more reliable development.\r\nSift was born from our work at SpaceX on Dragon, Falcon, Starlink, and Starship—where scaling telemetry, debugging flight systems, and ensuring mission reliability demanded new infrastructure. Founded by a team from SpaceX, Google, and Palantir, Sift is built for mission-critical systems where precision and scalability are non-negotiable.\r\nAs an early engineer focused on our data infrastructure, you won't just write code—you'll define core architecture and help scale a real-time telemetry platform from the ground up. You'll work on complex backend systems designed to ingest, store, and serve millions of high-frequency data points per second, enabling faster iteration cycles for some of the most advanced engineering teams in the world.\r\nIn This Role, You'll:\r\nDesign and build a horizontally scalable platform for ingesting millions of hardware sensor data points per second\r\nDevelop durable, efficient database solutions to support real-time reads and large-scale analytics workloads\r\nPioneer data architecture by integrating recent innovations in streaming and storage, including cloud-native and diskless designs\r\nHelp define engineering culture, standards, and processes\r\nCollaborate closely with peers on architecture, design, code reviews, and scaling strategies\r\nThe Skillset You'll Bring:\r\nBachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, or another STEM discipline\r\n7+ years of experience in backend, infrastructure, or data engineering roles\r\nHands-on experience with event-time-based stream processing or streaming SQL systems using tools like Apache Flink, Kafka Streams, Beam, or similar\r\nProficiency with relational and time-series databases like PostgreSQL, Druid, Pinot, TimescaleDB, or equivalent\r\nExperience with large-scale distributed systems or low-latency backend services, ideally written in Go, Rust, or Python\r\nFamiliarity with DevOps and cloud infrastructure tools such as Kubernetes, Prometheus, ArgoCD, and Terraform\r\nStrong communication skills and a collaborative approach to problem-solving\r\nBonus Points\r\nFamiliarity with telemetry data from hardware systems, high-throughput ingest pipelines, or columnar storage formats like Apache Arrow and Parquet\r\nExperience building resilient, performant systems that scale to billions of records\r\nCuriosity about new data paradigms and eagerness to evaluate and integrate emerging tools and techniques\r\nEngineering at Sift\r\nYou'll join a tight-knit team of world-class engineers building foundational systems for next-gen machines. Technologies you'll work with may include:\r\nFrontend & Backend : Go, gRPC, PostgreSQL, Protobuf, React, TypeScript\r\nData Infrastructure : Apache Arrow, DataFusion, Flink, Kafka, Parquet, Rust\r\nOps & Tooling : AWS, Kubernetes, Docker, GitHub Actions, Prometheus, Argo CD, Grafana, Linux\r\nLocation\r\nSift's headquarters is in El Segundo, CA . We collaborate in person twice a week—on Mondays and Thursdays —and come together for a full week every two months. While we prefer team members to be local, we're open to relocating candidates to LA or considering remote work from the San Francisco area for the right candidate.\r\nSalary range: $200,000 - $250,000 per year. Plus equity and benefits.\r\nEligibility\r\nU.S. Person Required : Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual such as an asylee or refugee in compliance with ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) / EAR (Export Administration Regulations) regulations.\r\nJ-18808-Ljbffr","datePosted":"2026-04-09T15:27:42.753Z","dateModified":"2026-04-09T15:27:42.753Z","hiringOrganization":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Sift Stack","sameAs":"https://jobsearcher.com"},"jobLocation":{"@type":"Place","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","addressLocality":"El Segundo","addressRegion":"CA","addressCountry":"US"}},"identifier":{"@type":"PropertyValue","name":"JobSearcher","value":"640cbfaa9c6494ada97964ad"},"url":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/640cbfaa9c6494ada97964ad"}}