{"id":137489,"url":"https://alion.io/job/sphere-senior-backend-engineer-data","title":"Senior Backend Engineer (Data)","company":{"id":920,"name":"Sphere","domain":"getsphere.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/sphere","size_band":"11-50","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Work at a Startup","truth_index":null},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Francisco, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":180000,"max":250000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":250000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":6,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Django","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Replit","optional":false},{"name":"Runway","optional":false},{"name":"Stripe","optional":false},{"name":"Windsurf","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-27T18:30:56Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-13","last_verified_at":"2026-10-17T12:56:51Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":50,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":50},"description":"Mission:\nSphere has built the world’s first AI-native tax engine that helps companies like Eleven Labs, Replit, Runway AI, Windsurf (+ many more) automate their sales tax, VAT and GST obligations:\nWe're growing rapidly (34%+ MoM revenue growth) and helping the fastest growing tech companies around the world including Eleven Labs, Replit, Windsurf, Fathom, Linktree, Photoroom, Sierra AI, Zed etc\nWe’ve spent the last 1.5 years building local rails into tax authorities in both the US and internationally to properly automate compliance processes (no other vendor has done this)\nWe're building the world's first AI-native tax engine (which will be the foundation for a broader cross border compliance platform; think Deel for international billing)\nWe're well funded by Felicis Ventures and YC\nA crucial part of Sphere’s platform involves integrating with customer billing systems (e.g. Stripe, Chargebee, Rillet, Campfire and many more) and ingesting large volumes of transaction data across customers around the world.\nAs we scale, the need for a uniform data pipeline across these integrations is mission critical and will allow us to service more customers in different industries, with different billing systems and processes.\nWhy this is a massive opportunity:\nMassive TAM: Every business around the world needs this. Compliance isn’t optional.\nStrong macro tailwinds: Businesses are expanding globally at a faster pace, while tax authorities are cracking down on cross-border compliance, driving urgent demand.\nAI advantage: Incumbents can’t scale beyond the U.S.; our AI-native tax engine can.\nProduct vision: Indirect tax is just the start; we’re building the Deel for international billing.\nWhat you will do:\nWithin weeks:\nOwn all billing integrations across billing providers (Stripe, Chargebee), ERPs (Rillet, Campfire) and our standalone API\nArchitect plans for a uniform data pipeline that will manage ingestion and storage of >1B records across different billing providers\nDefine a uniform data model to store all transaction-related data\nWork directly with some of the fastest growing companies in the world - including Eleven Labs, Replit, Windsurf on their billing set up\nWithin months:\nExecute and build out the data pipeline\nBuild out new integrations that will plug into our standardized data pipeline \nOptimize data pipeline / integrations for speed and efficiency (reduce syncing time)\nBegin designing the next evolution of the data warehouse for analytics\nWhat’s important to us:\nThe Dog: Grit > pedigree.\nShip fast: If it can be done today, do it today.\nSelf-starter: No hand-holding\nAccountability: You’ll be held accountable to objective, measurable targets each month.\nIn-person: SF only.\nRequirements:\nStrong experience in Python. Our core application backend and data pipeline services are built with Python and Django\nStrong skills in designing, architecting, and building data systems from the ground up\nVery strong attention to detail. When you work with numbers this is non-negotiable - it’s not enough to be 99% right.\nYou're almost as much a data engineer as you are a software engineer. You've used the tools of the modern data stack but you've also built complex software from the ground up\nNice to have:\nExperience working with large volumes of transaction data. You’ll be getting very familiar with it!\nExperience working with billing systems (Stripe, Chargebee, Netsuite etc)\nExperience with Django or Python ORM\nWhile infrastructure may not be your primary focus, you’re not afraid to spin up extra infrastructure components / resources.","description_format":"text","description_chars":3580,"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":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Accounting & Tax Software","Tax Advisory & Preparation"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-08-27T18:30:56Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":20,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.455,"p_room":0.45,"age_days":50,"expected_fill_days":30,"reasons":["conf:3","win:tail"],"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":250000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/sphere-senior-backend-engineer-data","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/sphere-senior-backend-engineer-data.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-17T15:25:59Z","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":20881,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-18T00:00:00Z"}},"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":920},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=920"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fsphere-senior-backend-engineer-data"},{"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%2Fsphere-senior-backend-engineer-data"},{"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%2Fsphere-senior-backend-engineer-data"},{"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/sphere-senior-backend-engineer-data\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fsphere-senior-backend-engineer-data"}]}