Staff Backend Engineer

TL;DR

Are you an experienced Staff Backend Engineer with the talent and know-how for building efficient and scalable backend systems capable of ingesting, storing, and processing millions of environmental data points from sensor systems in the field? Exciting opportunity with one of the leading climate tech companies in the Bay Area.

About Aclima 

Aclima is pioneering an entirely new way to monitor and respond to air pollution in communities, and track the effectiveness of focused mitigation efforts. We leverage cutting-edge sensor technology mounted on fleets of mapping vehicles to measure air pollution, greenhouse gases, methane, and air toxics across entire cities, states, and regions at block-level resolution. Our professional analytics software, Aclima Pro, translates billions of scientific measurements into insights at the source level, providing environmental intelligence for governments, industry, and communities. Our free app delivers address-level air pollution insights for the communities we serve. Aclima is a purpose-driven technology company helping to catalyze bold climate action that protects community health, reduces emissions, and supports smart government.

Aclima is one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential companies. Other awards include Fast Company’s 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World, #1 in Data Science, Inc. Magazine’s Best in Business, a Fast Company 2022 World Changing Idea, a WEF Technology Pioneer, and one of the top 100 companies in GovTech for 2023. Aclima is headquartered in San Francisco. 

To learn more about Aclima, please visit https://aclima.io.

About the Role

As the Staff Backend Engineer, you’ll have a passion for environmental impact and expertise in building large-scale, distributed systems. As a platform expert, you will be responsible for architecting and developing robust backend solutions that power our mobile air pollution sensor data platform. In addition to technical leadership, you will contribute to hands-on implementation of systems for processing vast amounts of data and supporting our API and  product infrastructure. 

Key Responsibilities:

System Architecture and Design:

• Lead the design and architecture of scalable backend systems capable of processing and analyzing large-scale air pollution data from a fleet of moving mobile monitoring vehicles.

• Evaluate and integrate emerging technologies to enhance system capabilities and ensure robust data processing pipelines.

Backend Development:

• Develop and maintain high-performance APIs and backend services that support our platform's functionality and deliver seamless user experiences.

• Collaborate with frontend engineers, data scientists, and product teams to deliver high-quality solutions aligned with business goals.

Distributed Data Processing:

• Implement and optimize distributed data processing systems to handle and analyze large volumes of sensor data efficiently and accurately.

• Ensure data integrity, reliability, and security across all systems and processes.

Technical Leadership:

• Provide mentorship and guidance to junior engineers, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.

• Lead technical discussions and decision-making processes, contributing to the company’s strategic vision.

Quality Assurance:

• Establish best practices for code quality, testing, and deployment to ensure the delivery of reliable and maintainable systems.

• Conduct thorough code reviews and advocate for technical excellence across the engineering team.

Qualifications:

• Remote, but Bay Area candidates will be preferred

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.

• 8+ years of experience in backend development with a focus on building scalable and distributed systems.

• Expertise in Python and proficiency in Javascript, and SQL.

• Proven experience with cloud platforms (we use Google Cloud, and experience with AWS is also a plus) and containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes).

• Strong understanding of distributed data processing frameworks (Beam, Spark, Flink, etc.) and database systems (SQL and NoSQL).

• Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to work collaboratively in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment.

• Passion