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# Staff Backend Engineer, Discovery API

- **Company:** Vantor Inc.
- **Location:** Westminster, CO, United States
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Salary:** $105,000 - $154,000
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Geographic Information Systems, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Artificial Intelligence, Amazon Web Services, Automation of Tests, Big Data, Python (Programming Language), PostgreSQL, Performance Tuning, PostGIS, Cloud Services, Flask (Web Framework), Backend, Cloudformation, Fastapi, Build Management, Kubernetes, Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL), Api Design, Terraform, Data Pipelines, Raster Graphics
- **Published:** November 12, 2026
- **Apply:** https://www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=20ceaa22a6998a97

## About the Role

* 3-5 years of backend development, building secure, scalable services in production
 * Familiarity with Python and API design, with a framework such as FastAPI or Flask
 * Experience building and operating data pipelines over large datasets
 * PostgreSQL, including performance tuning at scale
 * Fluent building and operating cloud services (AWS, GCP, or similar), with infrastructure as code such as Terraform or CloudFormation
 * Automated testing discipline
 * Applies AI to accelerate implementation
 * US citizenship required
 * Able to obtain and maintain a US security clearance, * Catalog experience with geospatial data or other large-scale archives
 * Familiarity with geospatial standards and tooling such as STAC, OGC APIs, PostGIS, and GDAL
 * Kubernetes or similar container orchestration
 * Zero-downtime deploys and service modernization

Pay Transparency: To support pay transparency, Vantor includes salary ranges in all U.S. job postings. Starting pay for this role will fall within the listed range and will be based on factors such as experience, qualifications, skills, location, and market conditions. Candidates who meet the minimum requirements for the role should not expect to receive compensation at the top of the range. The listed range reflects the expected pay for this position, and final offers will be determined based on each candidate's experience, expertise, and alignment with the role.

## Description

Satellite imagery helps people map, monitor, and respond to what's happening across the planet, and our catalog API is how customers find and access it. We're looking for a senior backend developer to own that API end to end on a small, high-autonomy team, with real influence over its architecture and room to grow your scope.

This is a hands-on role for someone who likes hard problems at scale: large geospatial datasets, both raster and vector, a high-traffic API, and performance work that actually matters. You'll design and build APIs and data pipelines in Python, tune performance against big Postgres datasets, and run it in the cloud.

What You'll Do

 * Own and evolve the catalog API, from design through production
 * Build and operate the data pipelines that keep the catalog current
 * Tune performance across the API and Postgres at scale
 * Ship safely and often, with automated tests and reliable deploys
 * Shape the architecture and technical direction alongside a small team