Backend Engineer

ABOUT US: Skip is on a mission to make life joyful through powered movement. Movement is a powerful way to build physical, mental and social health. Yet it is elusive for 2 billion people due to age, injury, or disability. We are building products that will restore mobility for millions and enable a new frontier of joyful movement experiences. We want to build a future where a grandparent can easily outrun their grandkids and no one is left behind at the trailhead. Skip is a 22-person early-stage start-up that spun out of Google X in 2023. With deep cross-disciplinary expertise and key partnerships (e.g. with Arc’teryx) we are uniquely positioned to launch the first commercially successful wearable robotic device, the MO/GO, develop a platform to launch future Movewear products and transform millions of lives in the coming years. THE ROLE: We are seeking a highly motivated and adaptable backend engineer to own the systems powering a new generation of wearable robots. from APIs and data pipelines connecting devices to the cloud, to the infrastructure behind real-time telemetry, over-the-air updates, and fleet management. You'll navigate the full range of backend challenges (scalability, reliability, security, latency) while integrating tightly with embedded hardware in a fast-moving startup environment. You’ll work as an equal member of our 3-4 person software team. You'll be responsible for backend development and cloud infrastructure as we build a new consumer robotics platform. We are currently a flat team, but you’ll be expected to coach and mentor Skippers with less experience. Some of the specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to: Develop and manage our backend systems, particularly focusing on containerized services and cloud storage solutions for data ingestion and processing as we go from prototypes -> fleet of 5,000 MO/GOs shipped to customers homes in the next 2 years Automate infrastructure setup and management using tools like Terraform, making the deployment process more reproducible and scalable. Enable us to scale safely and sustainable, for example transitioning from a single cloud project to distinct Dev and Prod projects in GCP, ensuring system safety, data integrity, and environment separation. Design and optimize data storage and retrieval processes, scaling up storage buckets and data ingestion pipelines to meet increasing data demands. Manage and streamline CI/CD workflows currently hosted in GitHub, reducing costs by optimizing test run segmentation and potentially hosting CI on GCP VMs. Monitor and optimize infrastructure, ensuring efficient usage of compute and storage resources Develop automation scripts and processes for infrastructure provisioning, backups, monitoring, and maintenance, enhancing system stability and scalability. Implement security best practices across backend and infrastructure to ensure data protection and system reliability. Collaborate with frontend, hardware, and controls teams to ensure smooth data flow across the system. Wear prototypes several hours a week to participate in data collection, test new models and provide feedback Contribute to the improvement of software development processes and practices. Engage in code reviews and knowledge sharing to promote a culture of continuous learning. Bring joy to the team, participate in embarrassing team events, tolerate KZ’s terrible music choices Basic Qualifications 8+ years of experience in backend engineering, with a focus on cloud infrastructure and data-intensive applications Excellent coding skills in Python and C++ Experience with cloud infrastructure like GCP Strong experience with containerization technologies like Docker and orchestration tools such as Kubernetes. Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools, e.g. Terraform Experience with CI/CD pipelines, e.g. GitHub Actions Experience with IoT and edge devices Able to deliver quality work in a fast-paced startup environment Ability to relocate to work at the Skip Bay Area office Sense of humour, tolerant of Aussie & Canadian spelling Bonus Points Experience in scaling and managing data pipelines for high-volume data ingestion using Beam/dataflow Understanding of DevOps and SRE (Site Reliability Engineering) principles to ensure stability and scalability in production systems. Experience with a UI framework like Dart/Flutter or Angular/TS Experience with Rust, robotics or mechatronics (ST/TI firmware, SPI/UART, BLE, etc) Experience with machine learning / ML Ops Experience in start-up environments Personal motivation to improve human movement This is a full time hybrid position working at the Skip office in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco. Skip is an equal opportunity employer. Our hiring decisions are based on need and competence to satisfy said need. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or any other legally protected status. Any and all offers of employment extended by Skip are conditional on candidates’ ability to provide satisfactory proof of eligibility to maintain full-time employment in the United States.