Sr. Backend Engineer, Infrastructure team

Who are we looking for?

Pinwheel is looking for a combination Backend / Platform Engineer who thrives at the intersection of backend engineering, infrastructure, and developer enablement. This role owns the systems our engineering team depends on to build, deploy, and scale products; everything from Kubernetes and CI/CD pipelines to observability and infrastructure-as-code (IaC).

You’ll work closely with product and engineering teams to enable fast, reliable delivery while designing systems that are secure, scalable, and built for the future.

What will you do?

• Build and maintain backend platform services and features that support internal teams and product development
• Develop internal libraries and tooling using Go and Python
• Design and operate systems related to authentication, public key infrastructure (PKI), and secure data storage and transit
• Provision, monitor, and optimize cloud infrastructure for reliability, scalability, and performance
• Support new product initiatives by deploying and managing microservices in Kubernetes environments
• Design and manage infrastructure-as-code and deployment workflows using Terraform, Helm, and GitOps tools (e.g., Flux, ArgoCD)
• Improve CI/CD pipelines and developer workflows using tools like CircleCI and GitHub Actions
• Implement observability solutions (metrics, logging, alerting) to improve system visibility and operational response
• Architect secure, cloud-native solutions across AWS, Azure, and/or GCP
• Partner with engineering teams to deliver production-ready, compliant platform capabilities

What qualifications are necessary?

• 3–5+ years of backend software engineering experience
• 2+ years of platform, infrastructure, or DevOps experience
• Strong experience with Python and/or Go
• Hands-on experience with cloud infrastructure and cloud-native architectures
• Experience running containerized workloads, especially in Kubernetes
• Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform and Helm
• Experience with CI/CD systems and modern delivery practices (GitOps, CircleCI, GitHub Actions)
• Experience with observability tools such as Datadog, Prometheus, or Grafana
• Strong understanding of building reliable, scalable, high-performance systems
• Ability to quickly learn new technologies and work independently in unfamiliar systems
• A curious, self-directed mindset with strong problem-solving skills

Nice to Have

• Experience with PKI, encryption, mTLS, or security-focused infrastructure
• Familiarity with GitOps tools like Flux or ArgoCD
• Experience integrating AI tooling (e.g., MCP servers) into production environments
• Exposure to compliance-focused systems (PCI, SOC 2, ISO, etc.)

At Pinwheel, total compensation is made up of salary + equity + benefits. We recruit motivated and high performing talent, and work to compensate people in line with the value they can bring to the organization in delivering outsized results. The talent market is competitive, and maintaining our ability to recruit and retain the best team possible is a top priority for Pinwheel. When creating an offer, we consider interview performance, candidate experience, external market competitiveness, and internal equity in thoughtfully assessing compensation. The expected cash salary range for this role is $150,000 - $200,000 base.