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# Staff Software Engineer, Backend

- **Company:** ARCHER
- **Location:** San Jose, CA, United States
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Salary:** $175,000 - $215,000
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Geographic Information Systems, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Artificial Intelligence, Amazon Web Services, Android Software Development, Cloud Computing, Software Engineering, Claude Code, Backend, Agentic-AI, Build Management, Information Technology, Real Time Data, Api Design, Data Pipelines, Api Management, Programming Languages
- **Published:** November 14, 2026
- **Apply:** https://www.careerbuilder.com/job-details/staff-software-engineer-backend-san-jose-ca--7dd4e9e9-6e8f-4bae-aaa9-eed013220fca

## About the Role

Software Engineering, Aviation Industry, Aerospace and Defense, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Diversity, Consumer Software, Artificial Intelligence (AI) Programming Languages, Application Programming Interface (API), Android, * BS/MS/PhD degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Operations Research, Aerospace Engineering, or a related quantitative field.

 * 10+ years of software engineering experience, mostly backend
 * You've owned a production backend, not just contributed to one. We'll ask what you ran, what broke at 2am, and what you changed afterward
 * At least one major migration you led on a live system with real users. Tell us how it went, including the parts that didn't
 * Experience with high-volume or real-time data: streaming, ingestion, time-series, or similar
 * Strong opinions on API design
 * Cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or similar), infrastructure as code, and monitoring you actually rely on
 * You can make architecture calls with incomplete information and explain them to people who aren't engineers
 * Comfort using AI tools as a core part of how you build, with the judgment to know when the output is wrong, * Geospatial data experience
 * You've run a public or commercial API, including the billing and rate-limiting side of it
 * Audio or media streaming experience
 * Aviation knowledge, or a real interest in it. Pilots and aviation nerds, this is your moment
 * You've shipped in a regulated or safety-adjacent industry and know how that changes engineering culture

## Description

* Migrate the existing production stack to new infrastructure without users or API customers noticing. Plan it, sequence it, and know when to roll back
 * Learn the current system well before replacing any of it. Some of it is worth keeping
 * Design and build what comes next: new data pipelines, new APIs, and the backend for features that don't exist yet
 * Keep the commercial API fast, stable, and documented. Real customers depend on it
 * Work closely with the iOS and Android engineers on API contracts and what the apps actually need
 * Help hire and set the engineering bar as the team grows
 * Work the way this team works: AI-assisted development is the default here, not a novelty. We use Claude Code daily and expect you to be fluent with agentic coding tools, or to get fluent fast. We'll be able to tell which