{"id":863479,"url":"https://alion.io/job/skipwithjoy-backend-engineer","title":"Backend Engineer","company":{"id":695243,"name":"Skip","domain":"skipwithjoy.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/skipwithjoy","size_band":"11-50","is_staffing_agency":false,"is_intermediary":false,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"D","score":46,"open_postings":10,"ghost_share":0.9,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-09-23T05:45:00Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Francisco, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":170000,"max_usd":315000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":1999},"experience_years_min":8,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Docker","optional":false},{"name":"GCP","optional":false},{"name":"GitHub","optional":false},{"name":"GitHub Actions","optional":false},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Terraform","optional":false},{"name":"Angular","optional":true},{"name":"Dart","optional":true},{"name":"Flutter","optional":true},{"name":"JavaScript","optional":true},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":true},{"name":"Rust","optional":true},{"name":"TypeScript","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-03-31T21:08:02Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-03-31","last_verified_at":"2026-09-23T18:39:14Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":176,"trust":{"level":"ghost","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale","company_stale"],"days_open":175},"description":"ABOUT US:\nSkip is on a mission to make life joyful through powered movement.\nMovement 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.\nSkip 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.\nTHE ROLE:\nWe 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.\nYou’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.\nSome of the specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to:\nDevelop 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\n\nAutomate infrastructure setup and management using tools like Terraform, making the deployment process more reproducible and scalable.\n\nEnable 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.\n\nDesign and optimize data storage and retrieval processes, scaling up storage buckets and data ingestion pipelines to meet increasing data demands.\n\nManage and streamline CI/CD workflows currently hosted in GitHub, reducing costs by optimizing test run segmentation and potentially hosting CI on GCP VMs.\n\nMonitor and optimize infrastructure, ensuring efficient usage of compute and storage resources\n\nDevelop automation scripts and processes for infrastructure provisioning, backups, monitoring, and maintenance, enhancing system stability and scalability.\n\nImplement security best practices across backend and infrastructure to ensure data protection and system reliability.\n\nCollaborate with frontend, hardware, and controls teams to ensure smooth data flow across the system.\n\nWear prototypes several hours a week to participate in data collection, test new models and provide feedback\n\nContribute to the improvement of software development processes and practices. Engage in code reviews and knowledge sharing to promote a culture of continuous learning.\n\nBring joy to the team, participate in embarrassing team events, tolerate KZ’s terrible music choices\n\nBasic Qualifications\n8+ years of experience in backend engineering, with a focus on cloud infrastructure and data-intensive applications\n\nExcellent coding skills in Python and C++\n\nExperience with cloud infrastructure like GCP\n\nStrong experience with containerization technologies like Docker and orchestration tools such as Kubernetes.\n\nExperience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools, e.g. Terraform\n\nExperience with CI/CD pipelines, e.g. GitHub Actions\n\nExperience with IoT and edge devices\n\nAble to deliver quality work in a fast-paced startup environment\n\nAbility to relocate to work at the Skip Bay Area office\n\nSense of humour, tolerant of Aussie & Canadian spelling\n\nBonus Points\nExperience in scaling and managing data pipelines for high-volume data ingestion using Beam/dataflow\n\nUnderstanding of DevOps and SRE (Site Reliability Engineering) principles to ensure stability and scalability in production systems.\n\nExperience with a UI framework like Dart/Flutter or Angular/TS\n\nExperience with Rust, robotics or mechatronics (ST/TI firmware, SPI/UART, BLE, etc)\n\nExperience with machine learning / ML Ops\n\nExperience in start-up environments\n\nPersonal motivation to improve human movement\n\nThis is a full time hybrid position working at the Skip office in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco.\nSkip 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.\nAny 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.","description_format":"text","description_chars":5252,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":8,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Continuous learning"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":true,"industries":["Artificial Intelligence","Consumer Goods"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-13T11:41:33Z"}],"liveness":{"score":4,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.153,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":175,"expected_fill_days":30,"reasons":["conf:1","stale_co","ghost","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-09-23T05:45:00Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/skipwithjoy-backend-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/skipwithjoy-backend-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-09-24T01:48:46Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers"}}