Senior Software Engineer, Backend

Overview

<div class="content-intro"><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Archer is an aerospace company based in San Jose, California building an all-electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft with a mission to advance the benefits of sustainable air mobility. We are designing, manufacturing, and operating an all-electric aircraft that can carry four passengers while producing minimal noise.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Our sights are set high and our problems are hard, and we believe that diversity in the workplace is what makes us smarter, drives better insights, and will ultimately lift us all to success. We are dedicated to cultivating an equitable and inclusive environment that embraces our differences, and supports and celebrates all of our team members.</span></p></div><div class="p-rich_text_section"> <h3><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><strong>What You’ll Do</strong></span></h3> <p><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">As a Senior Backend Engineer, you will architect, develop, and scale the core services and infrastructure that power our cutting-edge AI products. You will bridge the gap between complex AI models and production-ready software, ensuring that our AI-driven insights are delivered reliably and at scale.</span></p> <ul> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Design and maintain scalable backend systems, APIs, and data pipelines to support applications powered by AI</span></li> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Leverage infrastructure-as-code tooling to build and manage backend environments</span></li> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Work cross-functionally with AI Research, Engineering, and Data Science teams to deploy and monitor scalable ML and optimization models</li> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Own the full development lifecycle—from design and development to deployment, monitoring, and maintenance</span></li> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Monitor system performance and reliability, and respond to production issues with effective debugging and root cause analysis</span></li> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Write clean, maintainable, and well-documented code</span></li> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Mentor and guide junior team members with diverse technical backgrounds, fostering a culture of engineering excellence and software development best practices</span></li> </ul> <h3><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><strong>What You Need</strong></span></h3> <ul> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">BS/MS/PhD degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field</span></li> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">5+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a heavy focus on backend systems.</span></li> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Solid understanding of microservices architecture, distributed systems, and API design</span></li> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Strong proficiency in Python and/or Rust, ideally both</span></li> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Solid experience with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes)</span></li> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure</span></li> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Experience with infrastructure-as-code tools such as OpenTofu/Terraform and configuration management with Ansible&nbsp;</span></li> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Solid experience with relational databases (eg. PostgresQL), in-memory databases (e.g., Valkey/Redis), and columnar databases built on top of Parquet or similar formats</span></li> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Familiarity with GitOps practices (eg Argo CD) and Kubernetes deployments</span></li> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Able to scale yourself with AI coding assistants while still fully understanding and taking ownership of all code you commit</span></li> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with a proven ability to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders</span></li> </ul> <h3><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><strong>Bonus Qualifications</strong></span></h3> <ul> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Experience with AI/ML ops and tooling</span></li> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Rust experience with async runtimes (Tokio), serialization (Cap'n Proto), and message-driven architectures is highly valued</span></li> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Experience with message brokers (NATS, Kafka) and event-driven architectures</span></li> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Experience building high-throughput data pipelines</span></li> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Background in high-availability, real-time systems or event-driven architectures</span></li> <li style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Prior experience or a deep interest in aerospace, robotics, or autonomous systems</span></li> </ul> <p><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Please note that this job description is intended to provide a general overview of the position and does not include an exhaustive list of responsibilities and qualifications</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">At Archer we aim to attract, retain, and motivate talent that possess the skills and leadership necessary to grow our business. We drive a pay-for-performance culture and reward performance that supports the Company’s business strategy. For this position we are targeting a base pay between $145,000.00 - $180,000.00. Actual compensation offered will be determined by factors such as job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.</span></p> <h5><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><em><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Archer is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusivity in the workplace. All aspects of employment are decided on the basis of merit, qualifications, and business needs. We do not discriminate based upon race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.</span></em></span></h5> <h5><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><em><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Archer is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to job applicants with physical or mental disabilities, and those with sincerely held religious beliefs. Applicants who may require reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should provide their name and contact information to Archer’s People Team at people@archer.com. Reasonable accommodations will be determined on a case-by-case basis.</span></em></span></h5> </div><div class="content-conclusion"><hr> <h5><span style="font-weight: 400;">Information collected and processed as part of any job applications you choose to submit is subject to Archer's <a href="https://archer.com/legal/personnel-candidate-privacy-policy">Candidate Privacy Policy</a>.</span></h5> <h5><span style="font-weight: 400;">Archer is unable to provide work visa sponsorship for this position at the present time.</span></h5> <h5><span style="font-weight: 400;">Archer is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusivity in the workplace. All aspects of employment are decided on the basis of merit, qualifications, and business needs. We do not discriminate based upon race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.</span></h5> <h5><span style="font-weight: 400;">Archer Aviation does not engage with external recruiting agencies/individual recruiters with whom it does not have a prior written agreement. Archer reserves the right to make use of any unsolicited resumes that it receives and bears no responsibility for payment of any fees asserted from the use of unsolicited resumes. If you are a recruiting agency or individual recruiter wishing to do business with Archer, please reach out to&nbsp;<a href="mailto:People@archer.com" target="_blank">People@archer.com</a>. All employment processes are managed by the Archer People Team.</span></h5></div>