Senior Backend Engineer

Washington, DC — Hybrid $160,000–$225,000 + bonus + stock options Build the systems behind mission-critical AI applicationsBluJuniper is an AI and optimization company building advanced software for complex operational environments. Our engineers work on systems that bring together real-time communications, computer vision, audio intelligence, natural language processing, navigation, geospatial data, optimization, and secure cloud infrastructure. We are looking for a Senior Backend Engineer who wants to build the infrastructure that makes these systems work in the real world. This is not a role focused on maintaining conventional CRUD services. You will design distributed systems that move real-time data, coordinate services, enforce security boundaries, support AI/ML workloads, and remain reliable under demanding operational conditions. You will work primarily in Go and have meaningful ownership over architecture, implementation, and production systems. What You’ll BuildYou may work on systems that: Process and distribute real-time audio, video, geospatial, and operational data.Connect AI/ML services with production applications and real-time workflows.Support secure audio and video communication using WebRTC and LiveKit.Coordinate distributed services through Kafka and event-driven architectures.Enforce fine-grained authentication, authorization, and role-based access control.Power navigation, computer vision, NLP, and audio-processing applications.Operate reliably across cloud environments where observability, latency, security, and failure recovery matter.Support users making time-sensitive decisions with live operational information.You will help decide how these systems are designed, not simply implement specifications handed to you. The RoleAs a Senior Backend Engineer, you will take complex technical problems from architecture through production. You will define service boundaries, design APIs and data models, choose communication and persistence patterns, evaluate system tradeoffs, write production-quality Go, and operate the systems you build. You will work closely with engineers specializing in AI/ML, computer vision, audio, NLP, navigation, frontend development, infrastructure, and security. The problems are often multidisciplinary. A feature may involve distributed backend services, streaming data, AI inference, access control, real-time communications, and operational constraints at the same time. We are looking for someone who enjoys that kind of complexity. ResponsibilitiesDesign, build, and operate production backend services primarily in Go.Architect distributed systems for reliability, scalability, low latency, observability, and security.Define APIs, service boundaries, event flows, and communication contracts between distributed services.Build event-driven systems using Apache Kafka and similar technologies.Develop real-time communication infrastructure using WebRTC, LiveKit, and related systems.Design data models, database schemas, persistence strategies, and high-performance data-access patterns.Build authentication and authorization systems, including RBAC and least-privilege access models.Integrate backend infrastructure with AI/ML, computer vision, audio, NLP, navigation, and geospatial systems.Diagnose difficult production issues involving performance, concurrency, networking, scaling, and distributed-system failures.Design automated testing and integration strategies for complex backend systems.Participate in architecture reviews, technical design discussions, code reviews, and implementation planning.Make pragmatic architectural decisions that balance speed, simplicity, performance, and long-term maintainability.Mentor engineers and help improve engineering practices across the team. Required Qualifications5+ years of professional software engineering experience focused on backend, platform, or distributed systems.Strong production experience with Go.Experience designing and operating distributed services in production.Strong understanding of concurrency, networking, APIs, service boundaries, fault tolerance, and distributed-system fundamentals.Experience with relational databases, schema design, domain modeling, and production data-access patterns.Experience designing authentication and authorization systems, including RBAC or similar access-control models.Experience deploying and operating cloud-based systems on AWS, Azure, or GCP.Strong debugging and performance-analysis skills.Experience with automated testing, code review, and production engineering practices.Ability to clearly explain technical architecture and engineering tradeoffs.Legally authorized to work in the United States. Preferred QualificationsExperience with Apache Kafka, stream processing, event-driven systems, or message queues.Experience with WebRTC, LiveKit, or real-time audio/video systems.Production experience with Rust.Experience with gRPC, WebSockets, or other high-performance communication protocols.Experience building infrastructure for AI/ML, computer vision, audio processing, NLP, or geospatial systems.Experience with PostgreSQL, Redis, or similar production data systems.Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, Terraform, CI/CD, and modern cloud infrastructure.Experience building real-time collaboration or communications platforms.Experience with distributed tracing, metrics, structured logging, and production observability.Experience designing secure systems involving encryption, audit logging, secrets management, and least-privilege access.Experience working in defense, government, public safety, regulated, or high-security environments.Active or previously held U.S. government security clearance. Why This Role Is DifferentYou will have direct influence over how major systems are designed and built. You will work on technically demanding products where backend architecture directly affects system capability, reliability, security, and user experience. You will collaborate with engineers working across AI, computer vision, audio, navigation, real-time communications, and distributed systems rather than being isolated within a single backend domain. The team is small enough that strong engineers can make a visible impact and shape the technical direction of the product. We value engineers who can move quickly without being careless, simplify complicated systems, and think deeply about architecture before writing code. What Success Looks LikeSuccess means you can take an ambiguous, technically difficult problem and own it from first principles through production. You can understand the operational requirements, identify the important constraints, design the architecture, select appropriate technologies, implement the system, and make sure it performs reliably once deployed. You think about failure modes before they happen. You understand how your services behave under load. You know how they will be monitored, debugged, secured, and maintained. You make thoughtful engineering tradeoffs rather than reaching automatically for complexity. And you help raise the technical bar for the engineers around you. CompensationThe base salary range for this position is $160,000–$225,000 per year, depending on experience, qualifications, and other relevant factors. Eligible employees may also receive performance bonuses and stock options in addition to base salary. LocationThis is a hybrid role based in Washington, DC. BenefitsEligible employees receive: Health, dental, and vision coverage.Performance bonus opportunities.Stock options.Flexible work environment.Significant technical ownership.Direct influence over product and architecture decisions.Opportunities to work across AI/ML, distributed systems, computer vision, audio, NLP, navigation, optimization, and real-time infrastructure.A collaborative engineering environment with direct visibility into company and product strategy. Work Authorization and Clearance EligibilityCandidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States and must be able to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance. Certain customer, contractual, or regulatory requirements may require additional eligibility verification. Equal Opportunity EmployerBluJuniper is an equal opportunity employer. We consider qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected under applicable law.