{"id":704053,"url":"https://alion.io/job/havocai-senior-backend-software-engineer-distributed-systems","title":"Senior Backend Software Engineer - Distributed Systems","company":{"id":678606,"name":"HavocAI Inc.","domain":"havocai.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/havocai","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":9,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":36,"computed_at":"2026-11-01T06:10:25Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"remote","remote_scope":"stated_countries","remote_scope_basis":"board_field","remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":[],"countries":[],"hiring_countries":["US"],"hiring_countries_total":1,"salary":{"min":175000,"max":200000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":200000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":6,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"etcd","optional":false},{"name":"Go","optional":false},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":false},{"name":"AWS","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-07-08T03:34:35Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-07-08","last_verified_at":"2026-11-01T20:32:59Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":116,"trust":{"level":"stale","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale"],"days_open":116},"description":"About Us:\nHavoc is a leader in all-domain collaborative autonomy. Its software-defined hardware approach powers military and commercial-grade autonomous systems across sea, air, and land to sense, decide, and act together in complex and contested environments. Havoc connects assets, enabling them to share information, adapt in real time, and continue operating even when communications are disrupted or denied. Havoc optimizes mission performance and minimizes human risk.\nHavoc was founded in 2024 and headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island. Learn more at Havoc: All-Domain Collaborative Autonomy .\nAbout the Role\nWe are seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to drive the development of scalable, high-performance backend systems that power our autonomous platforms.\nIn this role, you will be hands-on in architecture and development as a senior individual contributor. You will be responsible for designing and building highly concurrent, distributed systems in Go, helping set technical direction, and ensuring reliable, secure, and performant backend services.\nYou will work closely with frontend, platform, autonomy, and embedded teams to deliver systems that operate reliably in real-world, mission-critical environments.\nThis role is ideal for someone who combines deep backend expertise with strong technical judgment and thrives in fast-paced, high-ownership environments.\nKey Responsibilities\nTechnical Ownership\nDrive execution and technical excellence across backend projects\n\nSet engineering standards, conduct code reviews, and guide architectural decisions\n\nContribute to backend roadmap and delivery in partnership with product and engineering leadership\n\nFoster a culture of ownership, quality, and continuous improvement\n\nBackend Architecture & Development\nDesign, build, and maintain scalable, highly concurrent backend services in Go\n\nArchitect distributed systems that support high throughput, reliability, and real-time operations\n\nDefine service boundaries, APIs, and data models across systems\n\nDesign services for high availability and fault tolerance across availability zones\n\nEvolve singleton services into multi-zone, distributed deployments\n\nSystem Performance & Reliability\nOptimize backend systems for performance, scalability, and resilience\n\nIdentify and resolve bottlenecks in distributed systems and concurrency-heavy workloads\n\nEnsure systems meet high standards for uptime and operational reliability\n\nImprove observability, maintainability, and operational readiness of backend services\n\nCross-Functional Collaboration\nPartner with frontend, platform, autonomy, and embedded teams to integrate services across applications and devices\n\nSupport end-to-end system design from edge devices to cloud infrastructure\n\nContribute to system-level architecture across the stack\n\nHelp align backend capabilities with product, platform, and mission needs\n\nSecurity & Best Practices\nEnforce secure development practices across backend systems\n\nMaintain high standards for code quality, testing, documentation, and reliability\n\nSupport technical reviews, design discussions, and production readiness efforts\n\nBuild systems with security, scalability, and long-term maintainability in mind\n\nQualifications\n6+ years of experience in backend engineering, distributed systems engineering, or related software engineering roles\n\nStrong expertise in Go and building highly concurrent systems\n\nExperience designing and operating highly available, fault-tolerant distributed systems at scale\n\nExperience with consensus and coordination primitives, such as etcd, Raft, leader election, or similar patterns for multi-zone deployments\n\nStrong API design and system architecture skills\n\nExperience with Kubernetes and containerized environments\n\nDeep understanding of performance optimization, data structures, and system design\n\nAbility to drive projects from concept through production\n\nStrong technical judgment and ability to operate independently in fast-moving environments\n\nStrong written and verbal communication skills\n\nU.S. citizenship and ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance\n\nPreferred Skills\nExperience with IoT, robotics, autonomous systems, or distributed hardware systems\n\nStrong networking fundamentals and debugging experience\n\nExperience with AWS or cloud-based infrastructure\n\nFamiliarity with embedded systems or hardware integration\n\nExperience supporting mission-critical, real-world deployed systems\n\nExperience working in small, fast-moving engineering teams or high-growth technology companies\n\nActive or prior security clearance\n\nWhat Success Looks Like\nWithin 12 months, success in this role looks like consistent delivery of high-quality backend systems that support real-world deployments. You will have helped establish scalable service architecture, clear backend standards, well-defined service boundaries, and improved system performance, reliability, and maintainability.\nYou will also have built strong alignment across platform, autonomy, embedded, frontend, and product teams while helping ensure HavocAI’s backend systems are ready to support mission-critical autonomous operations.\nBenefits:\n100% Employer paid Health Insurance\n\nDental and Vision Insurance for you and your families\n\nLife Insurance (Employer Paid)\n\nAbility to participate in the companies 401k program (Matching)\n\nUnlimited PTO policy with an enforced 2 week minimum\n\nEquity Package\n\nWork / Home Office Stipend\n\nGlobal Entry\n\n16 Week Paid Parental Leave\n\nMonthly Health and Wellness Stipend\n\nOur Values:\nInnovation: We are driven to break new ground. Every day presents an opportunity to challenge the status quo, think boldly, and deliver advanced solutions that transform the future of defense technology.\n\nIntegrity: We hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards, ensuring transparency, accountability, and trust in all our actions and partnerships.\n\nMission-Driven: We are focused on achieving impactful outcomes that align with our core mission-protecting lives through innovation.\n\nForward-Leaning: We continuously seek out new opportunities and remain at the forefront of technological advancements. We embrace change and anticipate the challenges of tomorrow with confidence and creativity.\n\nOwnership of All Tasks: At HavocAI, no problem is too complex or too trivial. We believe that greatness comes from tackling the hardest challenges, but also in handling the smallest, sometimes thankless, tasks with the same level of commitment and care.\n\nServant Leadership: We lead by serving others, whether it’s supporting our employees, partners, or the broader community. Empowering those around us is key to achieving long-term success and making a lasting impact.\n\nHavocAI is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to creating an inclusive and diverse workplace. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected status.","description_format":"text","description_chars":7035,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":6,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["401k plan","Equity","Health insurance","Home office","Life insurance","Parental leave","Unlimited PTO","Vision insurance"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Underwater & Marine Robotics","Military & Tactical Robotics","Defense AI"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-11T03:29:21Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 1","filings_12m":1,"filings_prev_12m":0,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":222500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-29T16:27:21+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":19,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.685,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":116,"expected_fill_days":36,"reasons":["conf:1","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-11-01T06:10:25Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":200000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/havocai-senior-backend-software-engineer-distributed-systems","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/havocai-senior-backend-software-engineer-distributed-systems.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-01T22:48:06Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":34667,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-02T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":678606},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=678606"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fhavocai-senior-backend-software-engineer-distributed-systems"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fhavocai-senior-backend-software-engineer-distributed-systems"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fhavocai-senior-backend-software-engineer-distributed-systems"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/havocai-senior-backend-software-engineer-distributed-systems\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fhavocai-senior-backend-software-engineer-distributed-systems"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":704053}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"havocai.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":704053},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. Docs: https://alion.io/developers"}}