About the role

Role Overview

Senior Backend Software Engineer (Senior individual contributor) driving scalable, high-performance backend systems for HavocAI’s autonomous platforms. You’ll architect and build highly concurrent, distributed services in Go, partner across teams (frontend, platform, autonomy, embedded), and help set technical direction.

Responsibilities

Technical Ownership
- Lead execution and backend technical excellence across projects
- Set engineering standards, conduct code reviews, guide architectural decisions
- Contribute to the backend roadmap and delivery with product and engineering leadership
- Promote ownership, quality, and continuous improvement
Backend Architecture & Development
- Design, build, and maintain scalable, highly concurrent backend services in Go
- Architect distributed systems for high throughput, reliability, and real-time operations
- Define service boundaries, APIs, and data models across systems
System Performance & Reliability
- Optimize for performance, scalability, and resilience
- Identify and resolve bottlenecks in distributed/concurrency-heavy workloads
- Improve observability, maintainability, and operational readiness
- Maintain uptime and operational reliability in mission-critical environments
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Integrate backend services with frontend, platform, autonomy, and embedded teams
- Support end-to-end system design from edge devices to cloud infrastructure
- Align backend capabilities with product, platform, and mission needs
Security & Best Practices
- Enforce secure development practices
- Maintain high standards for code quality, testing, documentation, and reliability
- Support design discussions and production readiness efforts

Requirements

6+ years of backend engineering and/or distributed systems engineering
Strong expertise in Go and building highly concurrent systems
Experience designing and operating distributed systems at scale
Strong API design and system architecture skills
Experience with Kubernetes and containerized environments
Deep understanding of performance optimization, data structures, and system design
Ability to drive work from concept through production
Strong technical judgment and independence in fast-paced environments
Excellent written and verbal communication
U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain/maintain a security clearance

Preferred Skills

Experience with IoT, robotics, autonomous systems, or distributed hardware systems
Strong networking fundamentals and debugging experience
Experience with AWS or cloud infrastructure
Familiarity with embedded systems

About HavocAI

HavocAI is a company focused on all-domain collaborative autonomy, using a software-defined hardware approach to power autonomous systems across sea, air, and land. Its platforms enable assets to sense, decide, and act together in complex environments, even with communications disrupted or denied, optimizing mission performance and minimizing human risk.