Software Engineer, Backend — Dots
Backend Engineer · Mid · Full Time
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Role
What you'll do.
Dots, an OpenAI initiative, seeks a Backend Engineer to design, build, and maintain robust backend services and APIs that power production systems. You'll collaborate with product, design, and engineering teams to develop scalable solutions, optimize database performance, and build third-party integrations while ensuring system reliability and security. This role is ideal for experienced backend engineers with strong proficiency in backend programming languages, API design, relational databases, and cloud infrastructure who can balance speed with quality in an early-stage product environment.
Responsibilities
- Design and Build Backend Services: Architect, design, and develop scalable backend services and RESTful APIs that handle production workloads. Make deliberate technology choices that align with system requirements, scalability demands, and long-term maintainability. Work collaboratively with product and design teams to transform product requirements into reliable, performant backend systems.
- Database Development and Optimization: Model and optimize relational database schemas to ensure efficient data storage, retrieval, and consistency. Conduct performance analysis and optimization work to reduce query latency, improve indexing strategies, and enhance overall database throughput. Participate in capacity planning and database scaling decisions as the product grows.
- Third-Party Service Integration: Evaluate, integrate, and maintain connections with external APIs and third-party services. Design robust integration patterns that handle authentication, error handling, rate limiting, and data synchronization. Ensure seamless data flow between internal systems and external service providers while maintaining security standards.
- System Reliability and Observability: Implement comprehensive monitoring, logging, and alerting infrastructure to track system health and performance metrics. Design for reliability through redundancy, failover mechanisms, and graceful degradation. Establish observability practices that enable rapid diagnosis and resolution of production issues.
- Production Issue Investigation: Investigate production incidents and anomalies to identify root causes. Perform post-incident analysis to implement preventive measures and improve system resilience. Document findings and share learnings across the engineering team to prevent similar issues in the future.
- Code Quality and Testing: Write clean, well-tested, and maintainable code that adheres to engineering standards. Develop comprehensive unit tests, integration tests, and end-to-end tests. Participate actively in code reviews to maintain high code quality standards and share knowledge with team members.
- Technical Decision Making: Contribute to architectural decisions and technology selections as the product and team scale. Evaluate trade-offs between different technical approaches, considering factors such as performance, maintainability, cost, and team expertise. Help establish technical best practices and engineering standards.
Qualifications
What we look for.
Technical
Production Backend Development Experience
Demonstrated experience designing, building, and operating backend applications in production environments. Should have hands-on experience with the complete software development lifecycle, including deployment, monitoring, and maintenance of live systems.
Backend Programming Language Proficiency
Strong proficiency in one or more backend programming languages such as Python, Go, Rust, Java, or Node.js. Should demonstrate deep understanding of language semantics, performance characteristics, and best practices.
API Design and Implementation
Solid understanding of REST API design principles, HTTP protocols, and best practices for building scalable APIs. Experience designing API contracts, versioning strategies, and documentation.
Relational Database Expertise
Strong foundation in SQL, schema design, query optimization, and relational database management systems such as PostgreSQL or MySQL. Understanding of transactions, ACID properties, and data consistency models.
Cloud Infrastructure Knowledge
Hands-on experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure. Understanding of containerization, infrastructure-as-code, networking, and managed services.
Automated Testing and Deployment
Experience implementing automated testing frameworks, continuous integration, and continuous deployment pipelines. Familiarity with testing strategies including unit tests, integration tests, and end-to-end tests.
Education
Computer Science or Related Field
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or equivalent practical experience. Strong foundation in data structures, algorithms, and system design principles.
Experience
Years of Backend Engineering
Typically 3-6 years of professional experience in backend software engineering, with at least 2 years focused on production systems design and maintenance.
Distributed Systems Experience
Background working with distributed system concepts including asynchronous processing, event-driven architectures, message queues, and eventual consistency patterns. Preferred but not required.
Performance Optimization
Experience identifying performance bottlenecks and implementing optimizations in backend systems. Familiarity with profiling tools and performance tuning techniques.
Early-Stage Product Development
Experience working on early-stage products or small engineering teams where you wore multiple hats and had direct impact on product direction and technical decisions.
Skills
Required
Backend Programming Languages
Proficiency in Python, Go, Rust, Java, JavaScript (Node.js), or similar backend languages with deep understanding of language paradigms and performance optimization.
Database Design and SQL
Expertise in relational database design, SQL query optimization, schema modeling, and understanding of database performance implications for application design.
RESTful API Design
Strong understanding of REST principles, HTTP status codes, request/response handling, and best practices for designing scalable, maintainable APIs.
Cloud Infrastructure (AWS/GCP/Azure)
Hands-on experience with major cloud platforms, including compute services, managed databases, networking, and understanding of cloud-native architectural patterns.
Automated Testing Frameworks
Proficiency in writing unit tests, integration tests, and end-to-end tests. Familiarity with testing frameworks and libraries relevant to your chosen backend language.
Version Control (Git)
Proficient use of Git for version control, understanding branching strategies, code review workflows, and collaborative development practices.
System Design Thinking
Ability to think through scalability, reliability, and maintainability when designing backend systems. Understanding of trade-offs between different architectural approaches.
Technical Communication
Clear ability to articulate technical decisions, explain complex concepts to team members, and collaborate effectively across product, design, and engineering disciplines.
Preferred
Distributed Systems Architecture
Nice to haveUnderstanding of distributed system concepts such as eventual consistency, message-driven architectures, and horizontal scaling patterns. Experience with event-driven systems or microservices.
Caching Strategies
Nice to haveFamiliarity with caching layers and technologies such as Redis or Memcached. Understanding of cache invalidation strategies and when to apply caching for performance gains.
Message Queues and Background Jobs
Nice to haveExperience implementing asynchronous processing using message queues (RabbitMQ, Kafka, SQS) or background job systems. Understanding of job scheduling and reliability patterns.
Observability and Monitoring
Nice to haveExperience implementing logging, metrics, and distributed tracing. Familiarity with observability tools such as Prometheus, Datadog, ELK stack, or similar platforms.
Database Performance Tuning
Nice to haveExperience with query optimization, index strategies, execution plan analysis, and identifying database bottlenecks. Familiarity with profiling and performance benchmarking.
Security Best Practices
Nice to haveUnderstanding of application-level security including authentication, authorization, encryption, secure data handling, and compliance considerations relevant to backend systems.
Early-Stage Startup Experience
Nice to haveBackground working in early-stage companies or on product teams where you experienced rapid iteration, wore multiple hats, and had direct influence on technical direction and product decisions.
Infrastructure-as-Code
Nice to haveFamiliarity with infrastructure automation tools such as Terraform, CloudFormation, or similar technologies for managing cloud infrastructure programmatically.
Tech stack
Languages
Frameworks
Databases
Tools
Other
Compensation
Pay and benefits.
Base·USD 347,000 – 385,000
Benefits
Comprehensive Health Insurance
Medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and eligible dependents. Access to preventative care and wellness programs supporting overall health.
Competitive Retirement Planning
401(k) retirement savings plan with company matching contributions. Employer support for long-term financial security and retirement planning.
Generous PTO and Flexible Time Off
Flexible paid time off policy supporting work-life balance. Ability to recharge and maintain wellbeing outside of work hours.
Professional Development and Learning
Budget and time allocated for conferences, training programs, and continuous learning. Support for professional growth and staying current with industry trends.
Equity Compensation
Stock options or equity grants enabling employees to participate in company growth. Alignment of employee and company incentives through ownership stake.
Parental Leave
Paid parental leave supporting employees during major life transitions. Recognition of diverse life circumstances and family structures.
Mental Health and Wellness Support
Access to mental health resources, counseling services, and wellness programs. Support for mental wellbeing in addition to physical health.
Commuter Benefits and Flexible Work
Support for commuting costs or remote work options where applicable. Tools and infrastructure supporting flexible work arrangements.
Full posting
Original listing.
About the Role
Dots is looking for a Backend Engineer to build the systems that power our product. You’ll work closely with product, design, and engineering to turn ideas into reliable services and deliver features from design through production.
In this role, you will:
Design, build, and maintain backend services and APIs.
Develop data models and improve database performance.
Build integrations with third-party services.
Improve system reliability, security, and observability.
Write tested, maintainable code and participate in code reviews.
Investigate production issues and address their root causes.
Help shape technical decisions as the product grows.
You might thrive in this role if you have:
Experience building and operating backend applications in production.
Strong proficiency in a backend programming language.
Solid understanding of API design, relational databases, and data modeling.
Experience with cloud infrastructure, automated testing, and deployment workflows.
Ability to balance speed with quality and make practical technical decisions.
Clear communication and a collaborative approach to solving problems.
Nice to have:
Experience with distributed systems, background jobs, and event-driven architectures.
Familiarity with caching, queues, and performance optimization.
Experience working on a small team or an early-stage product.
About OpenAI
OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.
We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.
For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.
Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.
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We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.
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