Senior Backend Engineer

About Ethos

Ethos was built to make it faster and easier to get life insurance for the next million families. Our approach blends industry expertise, technology, and the human touch to find you the right policy to protect your loved ones. 

We leverage deep technology and data science to streamline the life insurance process, making it more accessible and convenient. Using predictive analytics, we are able to transform a traditionally multi-week process into a modern digital experience for our users that can take just minutes We've issued billions in coverage each month and eliminated the traditional barriers, ushering the industry into the modern age. Our full-stack technology platform is the backbone of family financial health.

We make getting life insurance easier, faster and better for everyone. 

Our investors include General Catalyst, Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, Google Ventures, SoftBank, and the investment vehicles of Jay-Z, Kevin Durant, Robert Downey Jr and others. This year, we were named on CB Insights' Global Insurtech 50 list and BuiltIn's Top 100 Midsize Companies in San Francisco. We are scaling quickly and looking for passionate people to protect the next million families 

Senior Backend Engineer
As a Senior Backend Engineer, you will play a critical role in designing and building scalable platform services and systems. You will collaborate closely with engineers across teams, product managers, and partner functions to deliver high-quality solutions that power our core platform.
Beyond technical excellence, we're looking for someone who thrives in a highly collaborative environment, communicates with clarity, can lead complex initiatives end-to-end, and consistently raises the bar for engineering quality and execution. We value engineers who bring strong ownership, deep technical judgment, and the ability to drive alignment across teams.
 
Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, and maintenance of complex backend systems and distributed services
• Partner cross-functionally with engineers, PMs, designers, and non-technical stakeholders to drive projects from concept to launch
• Architect, build, and evolve API frameworks and platform capabilities used across multiple teams
• Produce clean, modular, well-tested, and high-performing code and abstractions
• Identify, diagnose, and resolve performance, scalability, and reliability issues
• Champion engineering best practices and drive consistency across the codebase
• Participate in—and help elevate—the team's code review process
• Clearly communicate technical decisions, tradeoffs, and project updates to diverse audiences
• Mentor and support junior and mid-level engineers, fostering a culture of growth and high performance
• Take end-to-end ownership of major projects, including requirements clarification, design, execution, and rollout

Qualifications and Skills

• 7+ years of full-time engineering experience, ideally in high-scale, high-complexity environments
• Demonstrated experience designing and delivering backend architectures from the ground up
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, API design, and performance tradeoffs
• Hands-on engineering experience with several of the following: TypeScript, Go, Python, PostgreSQL, Kubernetes, React, AWS
• Skilled in software engineering best practices: design patterns, testing strategies, observability, code quality, and secure development
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills; able to explain complex ideas to technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Proven ability to lead cross-team initiatives, drive alignment, and influence technical direction
• High degree of ownership, proactive problem-solving, and the ability to operate with urgency when needed
• Strong CS fundamentals including data structures, algorithms, and understanding of security principles and common attack vectors

#LI-ONSITE

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Don't meet every single requirement? If you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. At Ethos we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace.

We are an equal opportunity employer who values diversity and inclusion and look for applicants who understand, embrace and thrive in a multicultural world. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Pursuant to the SF Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider employment for qualified applicants with arrests and conviction records.

To learn more about what information we collect and how it may be used, please refer to our California Candidate Privacy Notice.

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