Staff Backend Engineer at Sift Stack

At Sift, we’re redefining how modern machines are built, tested, and operated. Our platform gives engineers real-time observability over high-frequency telemetry—eliminating bottlenecks and enabling faster, more reliable development.Sift was born from our work at SpaceX on Dragon, Falcon, Starlink, and Starship—where scaling telemetry, debugging flight systems, and ensuring mission reliability demanded new infrastructure. Founded by a team from SpaceX, Google, and Palantir, Sift is built for mission-critical systems where precision and scalability are non-negotiable.As an early engineer focused on our data infrastructure, you won’t just write code—you’ll define core architecture and help scale a real-time telemetry platform from the ground up. You’ll work on complex backend systems designed to ingest, store, and serve millions of high-frequency data points per second, enabling faster iteration cycles for some of the most advanced engineering teams in the world.In This Role, You'll:Design and build a horizontally scalable platform for ingesting millions of hardware sensor data points per secondDevelop durable, efficient database solutions to support real-time reads and large-scale analytics workloadsPioneer data architecture by integrating recent innovations in streaming and storage, including cloud-native and diskless designsHelp define engineering culture, standards, and processesCollaborate closely with peers on architecture, design, code reviews, and scaling strategiesThe Skillset You'll Bring:Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, or another STEM discipline7+ years of experience in backend, infrastructure, or data engineering rolesHands-on experience with event-time-based stream processing or streaming SQL systems using tools like Apache Flink, Kafka Streams, Beam, or similarProficiency with relational and time-series databases like PostgreSQL, Druid, Pinot, TimescaleDB, or equivalentExperience with large-scale distributed systems or low-latency backend services, ideally written in Go, Rust, or PythonFamiliarity with DevOps and cloud infrastructure tools such as Kubernetes, Prometheus, ArgoCD, and TerraformStrong communication skills and a collaborative approach to problem-solvingBonus Points:Familiarity with telemetry data from hardware systems, high-throughput ingest pipelines, or columnar storage formats like Apache Arrow and ParquetExperience building resilient, performant systems that scale to billions of recordsCuriosity about new data paradigms and eagerness to evaluate and integrate emerging tools and techniquesEngineering at Sift:You’ll join a tight-knit team of world-class engineers building foundational systems for next-gen machines. Technologies you'll work with may include:Frontend & Backend: Go, gRPC, PostgreSQL, Protobuf, React, TypeScriptData Infrastructure: Apache Arrow, DataFusion, Flink, Kafka, Parquet, RustOps & Tooling: AWS, Kubernetes, Docker, GitHub Actions, Prometheus, Argo CD, Grafana, LinuxLocation:Our team is based in El Segundo, CA, and works in person every Monday and Thursday. We’re open to relocating exceptional candidates or considering candidates who would stay located in the San Francisco, CA area.Salary range: $200,000 - $250,000 per year. Plus equity and benefits.Eligibility:Due to the nature of our work, U.S. Citizenship or Green Card status is required to meet ITAR / EAR compliance requirements.