Software Engineer, Backend (Platform)

About the role We are looking for a Senior or Staff-level software engineer to join our Backend Platform team. Our team is responsible for building and maintaining Hex's core compute platform, which serves as the fundamental engine for all code execution, SQL querying, and data processing across the Hex application. Our platform powers everything from the core notebook interface and published applications to the complex data capabilities required by our AI agents. Our mission is twofold: to make the compute platform exceptionally easy to use, develop on, and monitor, while also ensuring it is blazingly fast and performant. Engineers on this team operate at the challenging and rewarding intersection of systems architecture, API design, and deep performance optimization. What you will do On the Backend Platform team you’ll work on projects with high technical complexity and spanning across the stack, from our backend data systems to the frontend of Hex’s collaborative notebook interface. Here are some examples of the kinds of projects you might tackle: Using DuckDB to enable seamless data interoperability between Python and SQL code written by our users or AI agents Building intelligent caching systems to speed up customer data queries Implementing a graph-based dependency framework for optimizing multi-step execution plans Instrumenting complex, multi-language systems to identify performance bottlenecks Building visualizations into the product to help users understand the performance characteristics of their code About you 6+ years of engineering experience working on complex, data-driven systems or applications Expert-level understanding of Python, SQL, jupyter kernels, and/or data warehousing systems Deeply informed on industry trends around data processing, databases, and performant data architectures You love diving into highly complex codebases and have a passion for designing elegant abstractions that improve correctness and developer productivity An inexhaustible desire to understand where every millisecond of time could be going An instinct for strategic thinking and aligning with business and product goals while keeping a healthy balance of velocity and engineering excellence. Experience working in a remote-first team and strong communication skills in this context. This role is fully remote anywhere within the US Eastern timezone, with the option to work from our NYC office. Our stack Our product is a web-based notebook and app authoring platform. Our frontend is built with Typescript and React, using a combination of Apollo GraphQL and Redux for managing application state and data. On the backend, we also use Typescript to power an Express/Apollo GraphQL server that interacts with Postgres, Redis, and Kubernetes to manage our database and Python kernels. Our backend is tightly integrated with our infrastructure and CI/CD, where we use a combination of Terraform, Helm, and AWS to deploy and maintain our stack. In addition to our unique culture, Hex proudly offers a competitive total rewards package, including but not limited to, market-benched salary & equity, comprehensive health benefits, and flexible paid time off. The salary range for this role is: $198,000 - $295,000 The salary range shown may be a reflection of additional factors such as geographical location and skill ranges/levels we’re open to. Placement in the salary range will be decided upon completion of the interview process, taking into account factors like leaving room for growth, internal fairness & parity, your demonstrated skills, and the depth of your experience. Our Recruiting team will be able to provide more details during the interview process. By submitting an application the candidate consents to the use of their personal information in accordance with the Hex Privacy policy: https://learn.hex.tech/docs/trust/privacy-policy . Hex Technologies uses AI-assisted tools as part of our application review process, including for resume screening and