Senior Staff Software Engineer, Backend Platform

Patreon

Senior Staff Backend Platform Engineer leading architectural strategy for Patreon's backend platform. Driving modernization and collaborating with product teams in a hybrid work environment.

Posted 5/16/2026full-timeSan Francisco • California • 🇺🇸 United StatesSenior💰 $296,000 - $444,000 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

AWSCloudDistributed SystemsDynamoDBGoJavaKubernetesMySQLPostgresPythonRedisRust

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Define and drive the technical strategy for Patreon's backend platform
Lead architecture and implementation of scalable distributed systems, APIs, event-driven systems, and platform services
Lead modernization efforts across backend architecture, service boundaries, data access patterns, and infrastructure
Establish technical standards and best practices around reliability, performance, scalability, and maintainability
Partner with product engineering teams to ensure platform capabilities align with business and product needs
Shape cross-functional technical decision-making at organizational scale
Help evolve operational maturity around incident management, resiliency, and production excellence
Mentor Staff and Senior engineers through design reviews, technical leadership, and collaboration

Requirements

What you’ll need

Extensive experience building large-scale backend systems (typically 10+ years)
Deep expertise in distributed systems, high-throughput APIs, and low-latency architectures
Experience with databases, caching systems, and storage technologies (e.g. MySQL, Postgres, Redis, DynamoDB)
Strong understanding of data modeling, storage systems, caching, queues, and event-driven architectures
Experience in performance optimization across APIs, databases, caching layers, and distributed services
Strong operational excellence mindset, including incident response and production debugging
Experience operating systems in cloud-native environments such as AWS and Kubernetes
Proficiency in one or more backend languages such as Python, Go, Java, or Rust
Ability to communicate complex architectural trade-offs clearly
Experience mentoring Staff and Senior engineers and contributing to engineering culture

Benefits

Comp & perks

Health insurance
Retirement plans
Paid time off
Flexible work arrangements
Professional development
Equity plans
Commuter benefits
Lifestyle stipends
Parental leave
401k plan with matching

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

distributed systemshigh-throughput APIslow-latency architecturesdata modelingperformance optimizationbackend languagescaching systemsstorage technologiesevent-driven architecturesincident management

Soft Skills

technical leadershipmentoringcommunicationcollaborationcross-functional decision-makingoperational excellence mindset