Backend Engineer, Cloud

Zed • Boulder, CO

3d

About The Position

Zed is hiring an experienced backend engineer to build the cloud services behind Zed and Delta. The server-side infrastructure powers core features, including AI connections and collaboration, as well as authentication, billing, and telemetry. The team is rebuilding its backend from a single stateful server into a fully distributed system, and this role will help lead that effort.

This is primarily a software engineering position focused on building backend software, while also understanding and helping own the infrastructure it runs on. The cloud team works across APIs, application logic, storage, asynchronous processing, deployment, and operations. Work may include ephemeral compute for development, billing capabilities, identity and authorization, and integrations with developers’ existing workflows. The backend is built in Rust, including services compiled to WebAssembly and running on Cloudflare Workers. The team uses managed infrastructure and tests complete workflows across clients and services.

The engineer will work with engineering and product partners to shape projects and deliver capabilities from problem clarification through implementation, rollout, and operation. They will contribute hands-on code and reviews, investigate difficult bugs, share technical stewardship, support colleagues’ independent work, and participate in on-call and incident response. Success means independently delivering significant cloud projects while helping the team make sound decisions without relying on a single engineer.

Requirements

• Experience owning backend services from design through production and continued development, including API and data-model decisions, shipping changes to active systems, and handling failures and operational issues.
• Experience building and operating cloud infrastructure, including provisioning resources, configuring deployments and monitoring, and diagnosing production problems across application code and infrastructure.
• Experience leading projects involving other engineers while continuing to write code, clarify requirements, work through design decisions and dependencies, and deliver projects.
• Experience taking responsibility across different backend problem areas, learning unfamiliar areas, and delivering as priorities change.
• Experience making technical decisions with engineers and product partners, comparing approaches, choosing what to build or defer, and explaining trade-offs.
• Ability and readiness to build in Rust; production Rust experience is not required.
• A career centered on building software.

Nice To Haves

• Production experience with Rust.
• Experience combining application engineering with platform, DevOps, or reliability work.

Responsibilities

• Clarify needs with engineering and product partners, scope practical solutions, and carry projects through implementation, rollout, and operation.
• Share technical stewardship of the cloud system by developing context and judgment, making consequential decisions, and guiding work.
• Write and review code, investigate difficult bugs, and ensure services are correct, maintainable, and reliable.
• Make deliberate technical trade-offs, balancing focused solutions with investments that improve future work.
• Share context and useful feedback, and improve tests, interfaces, and documentation so teammates can work independently.
• Participate in on-call, respond to incidents, and address recurring problems in software and infrastructure.
• Build and evolve cloud capabilities across APIs, application logic, storage, asynchronous processing, deployment, and operations.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed