Staff Backend Engineer

Build the Future Workforce Wand turns AI into labor. It enables humans and AI agents to operate together as a unified, hybrid workforce, with comprehensive management and oversight. And it’s already operating at scale inside some of the world’s largest organizations. Wand built the world’s first Agentic Labor Infrastructure enabling governments and global enterprises to create, manage, and scale digital workforces. Our mission is to integrate agent ecosystems into the core of work and business, unlocking a generational leap in the global economy. We’re building the infrastructure that lets humans and AI agents operate together safely, transparently, and at scale. Join Wand in leading the Agentic Shift Wand is building a high-performing global team who take full ownership of what they build. We lead by example, move fast, make data-aware decisions, and continuously push for more- always with a focus on delivering real value to customers. You would be joining a world-class team that combines deep research expertise and real-world product execution, with experience spanning Deepmind, Google, Amazon, Miro, Elise AI, IBM and Accern. Position Summary: We are hiring a highly experienced Staff Backend Engineer to act as a senior technical authority within our engineering organisation. This is a deeply hands-on individual contributor role responsible for designing and evolving the core backend architecture that powers Wand. You will lead the development of scalable backend services, distributed systems, and APIs that support complex product capabilities and large-scale customer environments. As a Staff Engineer, you will also collaborate with other Staff engineers and Architects to influence the broader technical strategy, engineering standards, and platform evolution. Role Responsibilities: • Design and lead the development of scalable backend architectures, • Build and operate high-performance distributed systems using languages such as Java or Golang. • Define backend architecture patterns and standards used across multiple engineering teams. • Lead complex technical initiatives spanning multiple systems or product areas. • Design systems that support high availability, resilience, and long-term scalability. • Collaborate with platform, infrastructure, and data teams to ensure backend services integrate effectively across the platform. • Drive improvements in system performance, scalability, and operational efficiency. • Contribute to service decomposition, microservices architecture, and domain-driven design initiatives. • Design backend services that integrate with complex enterprise environments and external systems. • Ensure backend systems meet enterprise-grade security, reliability, and operational standards. • Improve system observability through logging, metrics, tracing, and operational insights. • Support production services and lead troubleshooting of complex cross-system issues. • Influence CI/CD and deployment practices to improve release safety and delivery velocity. • Establish and promote strong engineering practices including testing, code quality, and documentation. • Mentor engineers and provide technical leadership across backend engineering teams. • Partner with senior technical leadership to shape the long-term architecture and platform strategy. Key Requirements: • Extensive hands-on experience building backend systems in production environments. • Strong expertise developing services in Java or Golang. • Proven experience designing and scaling distributed systems. • Deep understanding of backend architecture patterns including microservices and service-oriented design. • Experience designing and operating high-scale APIs and backend platforms. • Strong experience with relational and distributed data systems. • Experience building systems within enterprise software, SaaS platforms, or software vendors. • Strong understanding of performance optimisation, scalability, and system reliability. • Experience building and operating systems in cloud environments such as AWS or Azure. • Experience with containerised environments and modern software delivery practices. • Strong debugging and troubleshooting capabilities in complex production systems. • Experience influencing engineering standards and architecture across multiple teams. • Ability to lead complex technical initiatives without formal management authority. • Strong communication and cross-team collaboration skills. Preferred Experience: • Experience in large-scale global B2B/B2C products. • Experience designing multi-tenant backend systems supporting large customer environments. • Experience working with Kubernetes-based platforms and container orchestration. • Experience designing systems that operate within enterprise customer infrastructure or VPC environments. • Experience building event-driven architectures and distributed messaging systems. • Experience contributing to platform engineering or developer platform initiatives. • Experience working in organisations undergoing rapid product and infrastructure growth. • Experience building systems that support data-intensive or AI-driven products. • Experience evaluating backend frameworks, infrastructure tooling, and architectural patterns. Personal Characteristics: • Strong systems thinker who understands interactions across services, infrastructure, and platform layers. • High ownership mentality and accountability for system quality and outcomes. • Strong problem solver who anticipates technical and operational challenges. • Comfortable influencing technical direction across teams without formal authority. • Collaborative mindset with the ability to work across multiple engineering streams. • Learning-oriented with a strong drive for continuous improvement. • Calm and methodical when diagnosing complex system failures.