Staff Backend Engineer

Who you are

• Experience — 6+ years of software engineering experience building precise and scalable distributed systems with best engineering practices
• Full-stack with a backend lean (a plus) — You're primarily a backend engineer but comfortable working across the stack; a core engineering background is preferred over a purely product-focused one
• A track record of building, not just reviewing — You've shipped meaningful work in security, scale, or infrastructure. This is a builder role, not a Security/AppSec role: we're looking for engineers who own remediation and deliver hardened systems
• Education — Ideally looking for a B.A. / B.S. degree in relevant fields such as Computer Science or similar Engineering/Mathematics degrees
• Technical aptitude — You're technologically savvy and can easily get up to speed on modern tech stacks (Java, Spring Boot, Microservices, AWS, Postgres, Kubernetes). Strong Java + AWS is a great anchor
• Domain exposure (a plus) — Fintech, payments, or other security-sensitive, highly regulated environments
• Ownership — The pride you put into every aspect of your work is unparalleled and undeniable
• Superb communication — Intentional dialogue is a superpower. You listen as well as you share your perspective with others
• Resilience — We're inspired by your unwavering determination to achieve success, no matter the adversity you face along the way
• Assurance — Your confidence is brilliant, yet ego-less. You possess a strong knowledge base, the ability to discover the unknown, and are open to differing perspectives
• Creative problem solving — Identifying the problem is simply not enough. You're instinctually creative with your approach in finding solutions to roadblocks
• Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification

What the job involves

• Altruist is in the midst of an exceptional growth phase and we're excited to hire Staff Back End Engineers to join our growing Engineering organization
• We have multiple teams hiring for high impact & high visibility projects, with a particular focus on the security, scalability, and reliability of the platform our clients trust with their assets
• Our recruitment team will work with you to match you to the right opportunity to help you grow your career at Altruist
• Act as a leader and steward of engineering best practices, helping to mentor other engineers and develop impactful solutions
• Own systemic, cross-service problems end to end — from problem definition through design, implementation, and rollout
• Design, build, and harden identity and access management capabilities: authentication, authorization, RBAC, and OAuth/OIDC flows
• Strengthen our AWS and cloud infrastructure, including its security posture, configuration, and operational guardrails
• Improve database performance, security, and optimization across high-volume, transactional systems
• Harden APIs, services, and distributed systems against failure and abuse
• Drive production reliability: lead incident remediation, close out root causes, and build the observability needed to catch issues early
• Partner with our Security/CISO team to translate identified gaps into durable engineering solutions you design and ship
• Focus on building and scaling services and user-facing web applications that are customer-centric, performant, and secure

Benefits

• Grow your career: Altruist is a thoughtful, fast-growing company that values high achievers
• Our success is your success: Be rewarded for doing great work - competitive compensation and equity for all team members
• Take care of yourself: Health, dental, and vision coverage, available on your first day
• Work-life integration: We work hard and respect everyone’s whole selves
• You're welcome here: Altruist is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We’re committed to inclusivity