Software Engineer, Backend & Data
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Oct 28, 2026. First seen by Alion on Oct 21, 2026. Vital Lyfe scores A on the Alion truth index.
About Vital Lyfe
Vital Lyfe is a tech company redefining water autonomy through innovation, creating a new category of personal water making technology built to scale where infrastructure can’t.
The Mission
We’re looking for a Software Engineer to help build the software behind a high-demand consumer hardware product. We’re spinning up manufacturing from scratch, scaling fast, and the software you work on will directly affect how we build, track, and deliver thousands of units.
This is the first full-time hire on our software team. You’ll work directly with our Head of Software, take ownership of a substantial area of our backend and data systems, and contribute across the tools and infrastructure that power our operations and help us scale.
What You’ll Do
Build and maintain data pipelines that bring test and production data off the manufacturing line, validate and store it, and turn it into views our teams use to track yield and failures
Build, extend, and maintain backend services and system integrations on our established cloud platform, keeping data reliable across the company
Own what you build end to end: design, test, ship, debug, and keep it running in production
Help shape design and implementation decisions that advance our technical roadmap
Build and improve internal tools that give our engineering and operations teams real-time visibility into production and manufacturing workflows
Contribute across the rest of our software, including our manufacturing execution system (MES) and the handheld app our floor teams use
Our stack includes TypeScript, Python, React, and AWS.
What We’re Looking For
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent experience
2 to 4 years building software professionally
Experience building and maintaining backend services or APIs in production
Strong programming fundamentals and comfort learning new systems quickly
Deep experience with at least one modern language, such as Python or TypeScript
Working knowledge of SQL and structured data
Comfortable in a codebase you didn’t write, and able to debug problems on your own
Practical and curious, with a habit of taking ownership and following through
Able to break down a problem, work through it, and know when to ask for help
Excited to work where software and hardware intersect
Preferred Qualifications
Experience building data pipelines, including validating and cleaning messy real-world data
Background in building user-facing interfaces with React or a similar frontend framework
Experience with dashboards or data visualization tools
Experience with AWS, especially serverless and infrastructure as code
Experience with ERP, MES, or other manufacturing systems
Interest in manufacturing, hardware-software integration, or IoT systems
Why Join Vital Lyfe?
Be the first full-time hire on a new software team, with a hand in shaping how the team works
Work on high-impact problems with global relevance
Help scale breakthrough technology in water security and climate resilience
Early ownership in a high growth, engineering led startup
Join a tight knit, mission driven team in a fast-paced environment
Build long term career equity as we grow
Location Requirement: Ability to work 100% onsite in Torrance, CA (remote or hybrid work will not be considered)
Vital Lyfe is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Vital Lyfe is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.