Staff Software Engineer, Backend Platform

Patreon•San Francisco, CA

10d•$257,500 - $386,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Patreon is seeking a Staff Software Engineer, Backend Platform to support its mission of funding the creative class. This role can be based in San Francisco or New York and requires a hybrid work model with 3 days in the office per week. The Backend Platform team builds the foundational systems and infrastructure powering Patreon's creator platform, including core backend services, APIs, databases, infrastructure, and developer tooling. This team is focused on foundational platform capabilities to support Patreon's next phase of scale and product expansion.

Requirements

Significant experience building large-scale backend systems, with depth in distributed systems and platform architecture (typically 6-8+ years, or equivalent demonstrated expertise)
Strong expertise in distributed systems, high-throughput APIs, and low-latency architectures that support millions of DAUs
Experience with databases, caching systems, and storage technologies (e.g. MySQL, Postgres, Redis, DynamoDB)
Strong understanding of data modeling, storage systems, caching, queues, and event-driven architectures
Experience in performance optimization across APIs, databases, caching layers, and distributed services
Strong operational excellence mindset, including incident response and production debugging
Experience operating systems in cloud-native environments such as AWS and Kubernetes-based infrastructure
Proficiency in one or more backend languages such as Python, Go, Java, or Rust
Ability to communicate architectural trade-offs clearly in writing and in cross-functional forums
Experience mentoring Senior and mid-level engineers and contributing to engineering culture through design reviews, documentation, or team standards

Responsibilities

Design and drive technical solutions for key systems within Patreon's backend platform and foundational infrastructure
Lead architecture and implementation of scalable distributed systems, APIs, event-driven systems, and platform services
Contribute to and lead modernization efforts across backend architecture, service boundaries, data access patterns, and infrastructure
Help establish and uphold technical standards and best practices around reliability, performance, scalability, and maintainability
Partner with product engineering teams to ensure platform capabilities align with business and product needs
Drive technical decision-making for your team's projects, partnering cross-functionally as needed
Help evolve operational maturity around incident management, resiliency, and production excellence
Mentor Senior and mid-level engineers through design reviews, technical guidance, and hands-on collaboration