Sr. Backend Engineer, Infrastructure team

Pinwheel•New York, NY

21h•$150,000 - $200,000

About The Position

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.

Requirements

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 Haves

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.)

Responsibilities

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