Senior Backend Engineer

Knox Systems•Charlotte, NC

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

Knox runs the largest Federal managed cloud, building and operating secure cloud and AI environments that support the U.S. government’s most critical missions — from national security and public safety to essential public services. Our customers rely on Knox to deploy production systems that meet the highest standards for security, reliability, and compliance. Work at Knox is high-impact and purpose-driven. The problems we solve are high-stakes, the expectations are high, and the results are visible. Speed, rigor, and trust matter here - because the environments we secure cannot fail. Your contributions are visible, your expertise is relied upon, and the impact of your work is immediate and measurable. We operate at federal scale, securing some of the most sensitive government environments in the country - because the systems we build must perform without fail. The Role You'll be the backend powerhouse responsible for building KnoxAI's core compliance engine—integrating with third-party services, implementing AI-driven analysis, and automating the complex workflows required for FedRAMP and DISA authorizations. Your work will directly impact federal agencies' ability to assess and authorize SaaS applications securely and efficiently. This role is ideal for a senior engineer who loves solving hard integration problems, working with cutting-edge AI/ML technologies, and building systems that must be both highly reliable and auditable for government compliance.

Requirements

5+ years backend development with TypeScript/Node.js; deep understanding of async patterns, streams, and event loops
NestJS or similar frameworks (Express, Fastify, Koa) with dependency injection and modular architecture
PostgreSQL expertise: Complex joins, CTEs, window functions, indexing strategies, query optimization
Prisma ORM or similar (TypeORM, Sequelize) with migrations and schema management
RESTful API design: Pagination, filtering, sorting, error handling, versioning, rate limiting
AWS services: S3, Lambda, SQS, DynamoDB, OpenSearch, Secrets Manager, IAM policies
AI/ML APIs: Hands-on experience integrating OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, or similar (not just basic prompts—complex workflows, streaming, function calling)
Third-party API integration: OAuth2, SAML, webhooks, retry logic, API versioning, SDK usage
Infrastructure-as-code familiarity: Ability to parse Terraform/CloudFormation and understand resource configurations
Security testing tools: Experience with OWASP ZAP, Burp Suite, or similar DAST/SAST tools
Message queues: SQS, RabbitMQ, Kafka, or similar for async job processing
Ownership mentality: End-to-end ownership of features from design → implementation → deployment → monitoring
Problem solver: Thrives on debugging complex issues across distributed systems and third-party integrations
Detail-oriented: Compliance work requires precision—small errors can have big consequences
Collaborative: Works closely with frontend engineer, engineering manager, and CTO; clear written communication
U.S. citizenship required. Dual citizenship is not permitted.
Ability to provide documentation verifying sole U.S. citizenship status as part of the background check process.
Offer of employment is contingent upon successful completion of all required pre-employment screenings, including a background check, in accordance with applicable laws and government contract requirements.

Nice To Haves

GRC/compliance background: Prior work in cybersecurity, audit, or compliance automation
FedRAMP/DISA knowledge: Understanding of NIST SP 800-53, FedRAMP requirements, or DISA STIGs
QWEN or other OSS model fine-tuning experience
LangChain, Haystack, or similar AI orchestration frameworks
Bun runtime experience or strong enthusiasm for adopting modern JavaScript tooling
Docker/containerization for local development and AWS ECS/Fargate deployments
GraphQL (future roadmap consideration)

Responsibilities

Build automated validation for Key Security Indicators across 26+ KSI families (CNA, IAM, SVC, MLA, etc.) with hybrid automated + AI-driven scoring
Develop and maintain integrations with FedRAMP-authorized services: Security: CrowdStrike (SIEM, EDR, CNAPP), AWS Security Hub, GuardDuty, Inspector, CloudTrail; IAM/PAM: Okta, Keeper (via CLI/SDK for just-in-time access, session metadata, audit logs); Operations: Jira (CAB approvals), ServiceNow (ITSM), PagerDuty (incident response); Training/Awareness: KnowBe4 (security awareness metrics); IaC Automation: Spacelift (run history, plan diffs, approvals, rollback info)
Parse and analyze Terraform/CloudFormation to identify NIST SP 800-53 control alignment and misconfigurations
Enhance and productionize OWASP ZAP integration for dynamic application security testing of customer SaaS applications
Build secure, controlled repository for customer-specific documentation with AI-powered SSP overlay generation
Implement multi-model workflows combining OpenAI (GPT-4o), Anthropic (Claude), Google (Gemini), and Groq for compliance reasoning
Build MCP tools exposing platform capabilities to AI agents (user management, findings retrieval, KSI analysis)
Collaborate on QWEN fine-tuning using Knox's decade of FedRAMP/DISA assessment data
Design and optimize prompts for compliance analysis, risk scoring, and remediation recommendations
Implement RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) for policy/control lookup using OpenSearch or dedicated vector DB
Extend Prisma schema for new features; optimize complex queries across 35+ models
Implement Redis caching for frequently accessed compliance data and KSI results
Build SQS-based job queues for long-running compliance evaluations and bulk imports
Ensure API response times <500ms for critical endpoints; optimize N+1 queries
Maintain strict team-based data isolation; implement row-level security where needed
Instrument code with CloudWatch metrics, structured logging, and distributed tracing
Implement robust retry logic, circuit breakers, and graceful degradation for third-party API failures
Write comprehensive unit and integration tests (Jest); achieve >80% code coverage on critical paths
Maintain up-to-date API documentation (OpenAPI), architecture decision records (ADRs), and runbooks