Staff Software Engineer, Backend (US - Remote or Calgary)

Do you want to empower organizations to build smarter compensation strategies while ensuring fair pay for all employees?

Syndio is the leading pay governance and compensation intelligence platform. We help organizations make better pay decisions at every stage of the compensation lifecycle, from leveling and offers to promotions and merit. Our platform gives HR, compensation, and finance leaders the data and decision support they need to govern pay fairly, compliantly, and with confidence. We partner with many of the world’s most recognized and respected enterprises, helping them implement leading-edge compensation solutions with expert guidance and analyzing pay for over 10 million employees across the world.

Join us in our mission to help companies make smarter pay decisions they can trust!

About the Role:

We are hiring a Staff level Backend Engineer to join our core platform engineering group. In this high-autonomy role on a focused team, you will design, build, and scale high-throughput distributed systems that power our core backend services. You will own systems end-to-end - from API design and data modeling to deploying resilient infrastructure and monitoring performance in production.

What You'll Work On

• Design, ship, and operate core distributed microservices written in Go and Python.
• Build real-time event streaming and data processing pipelines using Kafka.
• Architect performant, flexible API interfaces across REST, GraphQL, and gRPC protocols.
• Design efficient schemas and optimize query performance for relational storage using Postgres and modern ORMs.
• Provision, maintain, and scale cloud infrastructure across GCP and AWS using Terraform and GitHub Actions CI/CD pipelines.
• Ensure high reliability, low latency, and operational visibility across backend systems using Datadog

What We're Looking For

• 8+ years building and operating backend systems in production.
• Deep comfort with Go and Python, with strong experience building concurrent, high-performance systems.
• Strong database fundamentals with Postgres and relational ORMs, including query optimization and schema migration strategies.
• Experience building and maintaining event-driven architectures with Kafka.
• Expertise designing production APIs across REST, GraphQL, or gRPC.
• Hands-on experience with cloud environments (GCP and/or AWS), Infrastructure as Code via Terraform, and continuous delivery via GitHub Actions.
• Operational mindset: familiarity with observability, distributed tracing, and metrics tooling in Datadog.
• Strong written communication to author design docs and lead clear PR reviews.
• Own a technical domain with light supervision: propose direction in writing with clear specs, take review, ship, and carry the pager for what you shipped.

Why you'll love it here:

• 💰 Competitive Compensation. For this role our salary is targeted at $180-225k USD or $175-215k CAD per year. Final offer amounts are determined by factors such as experience and expertise. 
• 🏆  Syndio Equity. So you can share in Syndio’s success
• 🏝  Flexible Vacation Policy. We encourage our team to recharge when they need to (up to 20 days PTO in Canada) plus paid sick & safe time, compassion leave, and voting leave. 
• 🩺  Medical, Dental, Vision. Syndio pays 90% of employee premiums, and 50% for dependents.
• 🏥  Life Insurance & Disability. Syndio covers the full premium.
• 📍Remote-first in US + Alberta; in Calgary, non-mandatory office available #LI-Remote 

Role Progession

• First 30 days: Onboard into our development workflow, master core platform architecture, and ship your first feature.
• First 60 days: Independently own sub-systems, optimize Postgres/ORM data paths, and manage cloud infrastructure updates via Terraform.
• First 90 days: Lead the design and implementation of a major event-driven or API capability end-to-end and take on-call responsibilities for platform services

The interview overview

Below you'll find an outline of the interview plan for our Staff Software Engineer (Backend) position. Please note that this is what we expect the process to look like; we may ask you for supplemental information or require an additional step before making a final decision.

1. Recruiter Screen (25 min)
2. Meet the Hiring Manager (30 min)
3. Technical Discussion – Systems & Data Architecture (60 min)
4. Practical Coding & API Design Exercise Review (60 min)
5. Product Interview (30 min) 
6. Executive Interview (30 min)

At Syndio, we're building a diverse team that values candor, curiosity, and community. If you share these values and are interested in joining us, we'd love to talk with you even if you don't 100% meet the "about you" listed here. We don't expect anyone to have all the answers, as long as you're willing to learn and grow with us.

Syndio is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are building an inclusive and collaborative workplace as we grow, and we welcome team members regardless of gender/identity, sexual orientation, race or cultural background, religion, physical disability and age.