Staff Backend Engineer Core Product New York

## About the role We're looking for strong backend engineers who love building reliable systems around fragmented, but high-value data. As part of the Core Backend team, you'll work on the systems at the center of Kalepa: designing services, data models, pipelines, and evaluation loops. The goal is not just cleaner data, but an intelligence layer that makes better, faster, and more explainable decisions. You'll join a high-ownership team responsible for some of Kalepa's most business-critical infrastructure. Your work will make our data more complete, our decisions more transparent, and our products even more valuable. ## Responsibilities - Design services, data models, pipelines, and evaluation loops. - Build reliable systems around fragmented, but high-value data. - Create an intelligence layer that makes better, faster, and more explainable decisions. - Make data more complete, decisions more transparent, and products more valuable. ## Requirements - 8+ years of software engineering experience. - Embody hustle and grit, you're excellent at your craft and relentless in pursuing it. - Take full ownership of your work and drive projects to completion with minimal oversight. - Communicate proactively, surfacing blockers, asking the right questions, keeping stakeholders in the loop. - Thrive on experimentation: you're comfortable testing ideas, measuring results, and iterating quickly on problems no one has solved before. - Have strong fundamentals in system design, debugging, and problem-solving. - Know Python (our main stack), though we're open to strong candidates from other OO backgrounds. - Have experience with serverless technologies (Lambda, EC2), asynchronous workflows, and cloud environments. - Are comfortable with relational databases, ideally PostgreSQL. ## Nice to have - Experience with LLMs/generative AI. - Experience with distributed systems. ## What we offer - Competitive salary (based on experience level). - Significant equity options package. - Work with an ambitious, smart, global, and fun team to transform a $7T global industry. - 20 days of PTO a year. - Global team offsites. - 100% covered PPO medical, 100% covered vision and dental for individuals and families. - Healthy living/gym stipend. - Mobile phone bill stipend. - Continuing education credits. - 401(k) plan with employer contribution (regardless of employee contribution). ## About the company The salary range listed is an estimate and will vary based on a variety of factors. Final compensation will be determined during the offer stage based on relevant experience, performance during the interview process, and geographic location, and may therefore differ from the posted range.