Sr. Software Engineer

Care.com•Austin, TX

6d•Hybrid

About The Position

Care.com is seeking a product-minded backend engineer to join its Search & Match team. The role builds scalable systems for discovery, ranking, and matching and uses data and AI to improve relevance and outcomes for millions of users. The engineer will lead AI-driven initiatives from concept through production, partnering with engineers, product managers, and cross-functional teams to deliver features and improve performance. The position is primarily backend, with full-stack experience considered a plus. The engineer will build and maintain high-volume backend systems, contribute to platform evolution including migration from monolithic components to microservices, and take ownership of production support, reliability, performance, and developer experience. The role also includes translating business requirements into technical solutions, collaborating with QA on releases, and contributing to code reviews and well-tested, maintainable software. Care.com operates in more than 20 countries and provides a platform for finding and managing family care, including child, elder, pet, and home care, as well as household tax and payroll services and corporate care benefits. The position is hybrid, with in-office work Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and locations in Austin or Dallas, Texas. The anticipated national base salary range is $150,000 to $170,000. Actual salary may vary based on factors including location, experience, and performance. Other compensation may include annual bonuses and short- and long-term incentives.

Requirements

5–7+ years of professional software engineering experience.
Proven experience using AI/ML in production, or applying AI tools and LLMs to real products, and driving initiatives from start to finish.
Demonstrated ownership, including comfort taking ambiguous problems and driving them to measurable outcomes.
Strong experience with Java, Spring (Boot, MVC, Security), Kafka, Docker, SQL, and Hibernate.
Experience building backend services using microservices architecture and designing scalable, distributed systems.
Strong fundamentals in APIs, data modeling, and system design.
Experience with relational and/or NoSQL databases and cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
Experience with caching (e.g., Elasticache) and search technologies (Solr or Elasticsearch).
Hands-on experience with AWS services such as S3, Lambda, Step Functions, CDK, and KMS.
Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines such as Jenkins and modern development practices.
Ability to collaborate effectively in a fast-paced, cross-functional environment.

Nice To Haves

Full-stack experience, such as React and TypeScript, and ability to deliver features across the stack.
Experience with GraphQL, Kubernetes, gRPC, or modern observability tools.
Familiarity with Go or Node.js.
Experience with DynamoDB or other NoSQL solutions.

Responsibilities

Lead AI initiatives end to end, from identifying opportunities and designing solutions through delivery, measurement, and iteration.
Build, maintain, and enhance high-volume, scalable backend systems.
Contribute to platform evolution, including breaking down monolithic components into microservices.
Partner with product managers to translate business requirements into technical solutions.
Collaborate with internal teams to design, implement, and improve services.
Write clean, maintainable, and well-tested code.
Participate in code reviews and provide constructive feedback.
Support production systems, troubleshoot issues, and improve reliability.
Work with QA to ensure high-quality releases.
Identify opportunities to improve system performance and developer experience.
Build systems that use data and AI to improve search relevance and matching quality.