Software Engineer - Backend

About Manifold

Strategy is the act of choosing what to do when you can’t know enough to be sure. Manifold builds software for the people making those decisions on behalf of the United States. The ones whose decisions shape the next decade, not the next quarter.

This work is still done largely by hand, by smart people with slide decks, spreadsheets, and instinct. We think it should be done with better tools. Not tools that make the decisions, but tools that sharpen the judgement of the people responsible for them. Cognitive enhancement, in the literal sense.

Manifold is looking for a Software Engineer to build the core architecture and foundational systems powering our software.

You will own the application infrastructure that enables our product to operate as secure, reliable, production-grade software. This includes authentication, authorization, data storage, APIs, application services, and the systems that allow us to rapidly build and deploy new capabilities.

This is an early, high-ownership role. You will work closely with our founding engineering team to turn a rapidly evolving prototype into a scalable production application used by government decision-makers. You will independently design, build, and ship major systems while helping shape the technical architecture of the product.

What You Will Do

Build the foundation of our core application: Design and implement authentication, role-based access control, data storage, permissioning, API integrations, and the shared services that power our software.

Design scalable application architecture: Make technical decisions about service boundaries, data models, APIs, and system design to support an evolving product and multiple customer deployments.

Own backend systems end-to-end: Take foundational capabilities from loosely defined requirements through technical design, implementation, testing, and production deployment.

Establish application engineering standards: Build automated tests, define clear API contracts, and develop maintainable systems that enable the team to ship quickly without sacrificing correctness.

Enable rapid product development: Build reusable components, interfaces, and services that allow our engineers to rapidly develop new applications and customer-specific workflows without compromising the core platform.

Collaborate across engineering: Work closely with our Founding Engineer on domain-specific capabilities, Forward Deployed Engineers on customer requirements, and Platform Engineers on production deployment and infrastructure.

Required Qualifications

• Strong software engineering fundamentals, with deep experience building backend services, APIs, and database-backed applications.

• Experience designing, implementing, testing, and deploying production software used by real customers.

• Ability to independently own complex engineering projects from technical design through production deployment.

• Strong systems design skills and the ability to evaluate architectural tradeoffs across scalability, performance, security, and maintainability.

• Demonstrated initiative, sound technical judgment, and the ability to execute in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.

• U.S.-based U.S. citizen

Preferred Qualifications

• Security Clearance

• Experience building a production, user-facing application from the ground up, ideally as an early engineer at a startup.

• Experience designing and implementing foundational application systems, including authentication, authorization, data persistence, and API integrations.

• Experience making significant architectural decisions and owning major backend systems end-to-end.

• Experience designing extensible application architectures that support multiple products, workflows, or customers.

• Experience working on small, high-ownership engineering teams with rapidly evolving product requirements.

Nice to Have

• Experience with Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, Neo4j, or Next.js.

• Experience with multi-tenant applications, fine-grained access controls, or complex data permissioning.

• Experience with frontend development using React, TypeScript, or similar technologies.

• Experience building software for government, defense, or other security-sensitive environments.

Benefits

• 401(k) with matching

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage for you and your dependents

• Unlimited PTO

• Health & Wellness stipend

• Lunch stipend 3 times per week and dinner stipend after 8 p.m.

• Company-wide break the last two weeks of the year

• Supportive leave of absence including time off for military service, medical events, and parental leave