Senior Software Engineer, Backend

Department: Engineering | Location: Palo Alto HQ | Type: Full-time, On-site

About the Role
We're looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to help shape the core infrastructure that powers Pika's products. You'll play a key role in designing and building robust, scalable backend systems — owning everything from API design and service architecture to real-time messaging infrastructure and platform integrations. This is a high-ownership role where your decisions directly impact how millions of users experience Pika.

As a senior engineer, you'll also help raise the bar for the team — through architecture guidance, code reviews, and mentoring more junior engineers.

What You'll Do
• Architect and build scalable backend services that power Pika's web, mobile, and multi-platform products
• Own backend logic end-to-end — from database modeling to API design, infrastructure decisions, and production reliability
• Design and build real-time systems — WebSocket connections, event-driven architectures, and message queues for low-latency communication
• Scale infrastructure for throughput, latency, and reliability as Pika grows
• Support internal tooling and operational automation to improve team workflows
• Drive technical decisions — write RFCs, evaluate trade-offs, and build consensus across engineering
• Mentor engineers through code reviews, architecture guidance, and pair programming
• Debug, optimize, and future-proof our systems for scale

What We're Looking For
• 5+ years of backend engineering experience building production services at scale
• Proficiency in modern backend technologies (Node.js, Python, Go, etc.) and frameworks (Express, FastAPI, etc.)
• Strong understanding of distributed systems — event-driven architectures, message queues, service-to-service communication
• Deep knowledge of database design and operations (SQL, NoSQL, data modeling, performance tuning)
• Experience with APIs, cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP), Kubernetes, and CI/CD workflows
• Comfort building real-time systems — WebSockets, long-polling, pub/sub patterns
• Strong debugging and observability skills — you can trace a problem across services and fix it fast
• Ownership mentality — you identify problems and ship solutions without waiting for specs
• Clear communication skills and a team-first mindset

Nice to Have
• Experience with AI/LLM integration (model orchestration, token management, prompt routing)
• Experience with multi-tenant SaaS platforms or multi-platform products
• Experience building internal tools or automation pipelines
• Previous startup experience — comfortable with ambiguity and moving fast