Backend and Data Software Engineer

About the role We are looking for a Backend and Data Software Engineer to build reliable cloud services and data systems for connected-device products. You will develop backend applications, design data pipelines, and make operational data available for customer-facing features and analytics. The role combines software engineering, cloud architecture, and data engineering. You will collaborate with device, frontend, product, and QA teams to deliver solutions from design through production support. Responsibilities - Design, develop, and maintain backend services and APIs. - Build data ingestion and processing pipelines for batch and streaming workloads. - Design database schemas and data models for operational applications and analytics. - Implement business logic, integrations, and asynchronous workflows. - Improve system reliability, performance, scalability, and cloud costs. - Establish data validation, quality checks, and monitoring. - Write automated tests and participate in code reviews and technical documentation. - Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define requirements, estimate work, and deliver features. - Support deployments and investigate production issues. Required qualifications - Professional experience building and maintaining production backend services and data pipelines. - Strong Python and SQL skills. - Understanding of software design, data structures, and maintainable application architecture. - Experience designing APIs, including validation, authentication, authorization, and error handling. - Experience with relational databases, schema design, indexing, transactions, and query optimization. - Experience with analytical data warehouses, data modeling, and ETL/ELT workflows. - Working knowledge of event-driven systems, message queues, and asynchronous processing. - Experience with a major cloud platform, preferably Google Cloud. - Ability to troubleshoot application failures, pipeline issues, and data inconsistencies systematically. - Experience with Git, code reviews, automated testing, and CI/CD. - Clear communication and the ability to take ownership of work independently and collaboratively. Preferred qualifications - Experience with Google Cloud services such as BigQuery, Pub/Sub, Cloud Run, Cloud Functions, and Cloud SQL. - Familiarity with orchestration and transformation tools such as Workflow, dbt, or Dataform. - Experience processing device telemetry, time-series data, or other high-volume event streams. - Understanding of retries, deduplication, idempotency, late-arriving events, and data backfills. - Experience supporting reporting platforms, dashboards, or semantic data models. - Experience integrating AI/ML models or model APIs into backend services, including evaluation, monitoring, latency, and cost management. What success looks like - Delivers maintainable backend services and dependable data pipelines. - Produces consistent, well-defined data that applications and reports can trust. - Makes sound architecture decisions and explains technical tradeoffs clearly. - Investigates production issues systematically and implements verified fixes. - Takes ownership from requirements through release and operational support. - Collaborates effectively across engineering, product, and QA. Non-Negotiable Requirements • Working Hours: Consistent availability from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Pacific Time (PT), Monday through Friday (40 hours/week). • Strong, clear technical communication during Pacific business hours.