Senior Software Engineer, Backend

About the Role

We're building BaseOS - the operating system that runs the modern power company. It coordinates thousands of distributed batteries, powers our internal operations, and enables us to deliver reliable, low-cost electricity at scale.

As a senior, staff, or principal engineer on this team, you won't just build services - you'll define how the system works. You'll make architectural calls that other engineers build on top of, set the technical bar for the team, and take end-to-end ownership of the systems Base depends on every day. You'll be trusted to operate with minimal oversight on ambiguous, high-stakes problems - and to know which problems are worth solving in the first place. Your decisions will directly shape how power flows across the grid.

What You'll Do

• Own critical systems at scale: Design, build, and operate the core services BaseOS runs on. You're accountable for their reliability, performance, and long-term direction - not just their uptime today
• Set architecture and standards: Make foundational decisions on system design, data models, and service boundaries across teams. Raise the bar for how the org builds and ships software
• Operate across the stack: Work in Golang and Python across backend systems, APIs, and infrastructure, moving fluidly between application logic and the infrastructure underneath it
• Build systems that coordinate the real world: Design workflow systems (e.g., Temporal) that manage deployments, device control, and operational processes across a growing fleet
• Treat infrastructure as a product: Use Terraform and AWS to build infrastructure that's reliable and repeatable at scale, not just for one project
• Work across domains: Partner directly with hardware, deployments, and operations leadership to solve problems that don't fit neatly into software - and turn real-world constraints into clean system design
• Set the pace and the bar: Make decisions with imperfect information, take responsibility for outcomes, and help less-senior engineers do the same
• Mentor and multiply: Level up the engineers around you through code review, design feedback, and technical leadership - your impact extends beyond your own output

What You'll Bring

• 6+ years of professional software development experience, with a track record of owning and shipping production systems that other engineers and teams depend on
• Deep proficiency in a backend language (Go, Python, Java, or similar), with the judgment to know when "well-tested" is enough and when it isn't
• Real experience building and operating distributed systems in production - you've been paged for the failure modes you now design around
• Fluency with modern cloud infrastructure (AWS or GCP) and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), including owning services that other teams rely on
• Experience with infrastructure as code (Terraform or similar) and a track record of treating infrastructure as a first-class part of the product
• The ability to design systems end-to-end - from API design through implementation, operation, and eventual deprecation - with sound engineering judgment under ambiguity
• Product and business intuition: you weigh implementation against user experience, operational impact, and business outcomes, and you can explain the trade-offs to non-engineers
• A track record of cross-functional leadership - you've driven alignment across hardware, deployments, and operations on problems with no clean owner
• High ownership without needing to be asked twice, and a track record of stepping into ambiguity rather than waiting for it to be resolved for you
• Clear, direct communication and strong technical opinions, held loosely enough to change your mind when the evidence says to
• Bonus: experience with IoT systems, real-time control systems, workflow orchestration (e.g., Temporal), or DevOps practices at fleet scale