Staff Software Engineer (Backend)

TL;DR

Staff Software Engineer (Backend): Design and evolve core distributed storage infrastructure powering relational and key-value databases with an accent on high availability, multi-region deployments, and automation. Focus on building scalable sharding, query routing, and connection pooling systems to improve performance, reliability, and cost efficiency.

Location: Bellevue, WA office with in-person attendance expected at least 3 days per week

Salary: $230,000 - $270,000 USD (Zone 1)

Company

Robinhood is a fintech product company focused on democratizing finance for all by building innovative financial platforms.

What you will do

• Design and implement distributed storage systems including sharding strategies, query routing layers, and database proxy services
• Improve availability, failover, and disaster recovery across multi-region deployments
• Build and enhance control plane automation managing thousands of databases and caching clusters
• Optimize database performance and throughput via query analysis, connection pooling, and observability standards
• Partner with product and infrastructure teams to standardize service connections to Postgres, NoSQL, and caching systems while meeting regulatory and security requirements

Requirements

• Deep expertise in PostgreSQL (Aurora preferred) and relational database internals
• Experience with distributed systems including horizontal sharding, replication, and distributed transactions
• Proficiency in Go and/or Rust for backend or infrastructure services
• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes, AWS managed services (RDS, DynamoDB), and observability tooling
• Strong understanding of system reliability, performance tuning, and cost optimization in high-scale production environments
• Location: Must be based in Bellevue, WA with hybrid work requiring office presence at least 3 days per week

Culture & Benefits

• Performance-driven compensation including bonuses, equity, and 401(k) matching
• 100% paid health insurance for employees and 90% coverage for dependents
• Flexible lifestyle wallet benefits for wellness and learning
• Employer-paid life, disability, fertility, and mental health benefits
• Generous paid time off including holidays, sick leave, and parental leave
• Exceptional office experience with catered meals, events, and comfortable workspaces