Software Engineer; Backend Systems and Architecture

Position: Staff Software Engineer (Backend Systems and Architecture)
Location:

Hybrid (2 days per week in San Francisco) or Remote (US time zones)

The Role

We are looking for a Staff Software Engineer to design and build the backend systems, APIs, and integrations that power Any Road’s platform. This includes bookings, memberships, analytics, and personalization for global brands and live artists.

You will work hands‑on to deliver systems that directly support customer‑facing features, connecting brands and performers with their audiences through experiences, live activations, and membership programs. You will partner closely with product, frontend, and data teams to design systems that scale reliably and remain simple to use.

This is a technical and collaborative role with deep ownership. You will bring strong judgment to when we should build, buy, or integrate, and help the team adopt modern AI‑assisted development practices that improve quality and speed.

How We Work

You’ll be part of a small, collaborative backend team that works closely with product and frontend engineers to deliver meaningful customer features. You’ll work with experienced engineers and a VP of Engineering who clears roadblocks and supports thoughtful technical decisions. We value clarity over cleverness, test what matters, and ship incrementally and continuously to production.

What You’ll Do

• Design and build backend systems, APIs, and integrations that power bookings, memberships, and personalization.

• Collaborate with product and frontend teams to define clear API contracts and data models.

• Deliver production‑ready code that creates measurable customer value.

• Improve observability and telemetry to help the team understand and optimize performance.

• Evaluate and adopt new technologies that enhance development speed, quality, and maintainability.

• Partner with peers to strengthen scalability, reliability, and developer experience.

• Make thoughtful trade‑offs between speed, scope, and quality.

In your first year, you will

• Own architecture for one or two major initiatives that ship to production.

• Help evolve our backend to support new markets such as live performances.

• Improve observability from “good enough” to “confidence‑inspiring.”

• Contribute to sustainable, repeatable engineering practices that help us ship with confidence.

What You Should Have

• Significant backend engineering experience, typically 6–10 years.

• Experience designing APIs and systems that handle meaningful scale, such as high throughput, complex data, or reliability requirements.

• Proficiency in one or more backend languages such as Ruby, Go, Python, Java, or Node.js.

• Experience with relational databases like Postgre

SQL and a strong understanding of data modeling.

• Strong collaboration and communication skills with the ability to turn product goals into reliable systems.

• Pragmatic mindset with comfort balancing speed and quality.

Bonus Points

• Experience with No

SQL data stores (Redis, Dynamo

DB) and event‑driven architectures.

• Familiarity with telemetry, metrics, and observability tools.

• Background in e‑commerce, booking, or experiential platforms.

• Interest in AI‑assisted development tools like Copilot or Cursor.

• Experience working on distributed or hybrid teams.

What you might work on

• Building flexible seating and event layout systems for live performances.

• Developing a unified customer profile that powers personalized recommendations.

• Architecting APIs and data pipelines that turn experience data into real‑time insights.

• Strengthening observability and alerting across production systems.

• Creating frameworks and design patterns that help the team ship faster and more safely.

Why You’ll Love Working Here

• Build the systems that power real experiences people attend, share, and remember.

• Solve complex problems at the intersection of real‑time booking, data, and personalization.

• Maintain a sustainable pace with high ownership. We ship regularly, but we don’t expect heroics.

• Focus on what matters — you’ll typically own one or two major initiatives per quarter.

• Monthly Tune‑Up Days let you tackle the "If I only had a couple days" ideas that improve our systems, codebase, and workflows.

• Real flexibility: hybrid…