Top Backend Engineer Jobs in Chicago, IL

Leads software engineering projects and development teams building distributed microservices, full-stack systems, and cloud-based solutions. Designs technology solutions supporting regulatory needs and customer experiences, collaborates with product managers, evaluates and writes code, mentors engineers, and promotes modern technology adoption. The role requires expertise in backend development, cloud computing, databases, container orchestration, open-source frameworks, and Agile practices.

Designs, develops, integrates, tests, deploys, and supports scalable backend software and web applications. Builds RESTful APIs with Django, contributes to architecture, documents technical work, and supports production services using Kubernetes, EKS, and AWS. Mentors junior engineers, collaborates with stakeholders and QA, evaluates performance metrics, supports releases, and presents technical decisions to internal and external audiences. The role requires independent judgment and occasional nights or weekends.

Develop and maintain scalable backend services for programmatic advertising platforms. Responsibilities include designing REST APIs, analyzing requirements, integrating and releasing software, managing production deployments, troubleshooting complex issues, collaborating with QA and cross-functional teams, conducting code reviews, mentoring engineers, and promoting reliable engineering practices. The role requires Python and Django expertise, PHP experience, AWS and Kubernetes/EKS experience, and on-site work in Chicago twice weekly.

Build and scale backend data platforms and services for real-time loan origination and financial reporting. Lead quarterly delivery, guide engineers, define technical plans, collaborate with product and design partners, improve reliability and operational practices, monitor service metrics, participate in on-call support, uphold engineering quality standards, and mentor team members. The role requires developing highly available distributed systems and scalable data pipelines using technologies such as Python, Kotlin, AWS, MySQL, Kubernetes, Spark, and Airflow.

Build and operate Go-based automation for PostgreSQL provisioning, configuration, upgrades, failover, scaling, and decommissioning at GitLab.com scale. Develop a PostgreSQL-as-a-service platform, integrate cloud infrastructure and infrastructure-as-code tooling, improve database performance and reliability, and create safe upgrade automation. The role includes production ownership, architecture leadership, code reviews, documentation, cross-team collaboration, mentorship, and using AI agents in engineering workflows.

Design, develop, launch, and maintain scalable backend systems and APIs used by merchant and partner integrations. Collaborate with engineers and stakeholders, balance speed with system quality, debug code, conduct code reviews, and write tested, extensible software. The role requires experience with distributed systems, Python or Kotlin, AWS, MySQL, and Kubernetes, along with strong communication and ownership of professional growth.

Build and maintain backend services, REST APIs, data layers, tests, and microservices for a SaaS platform. Responsibilities include debugging distributed production systems, managing PostgreSQL and advanced data stores, documenting APIs and data models, participating in Agile development and code reviews, and owning a platform domain. The role requires Java or Kotlin, Spring Boot, API design, database optimization, monitoring, security tooling, and AI-assisted development. Preferred experience includes Go, Neo4j, RabbitMQ, Redis, multi-tenant SaaS, event-driven systems, microservices, and containerization.

Lead backend software engineering initiatives and developers building scalable customer rewards redemption services. Drive architectural modernization toward microservices, collaborate with product, fraud, and customer experience teams, deliver cloud-based solutions, mentor engineers, evaluate code, and apply technologies including Go, Python, Java, SQL, Docker, Kubernetes, and AWS.

Develop and operate backend systems supporting post-transaction processing for Affirm Card. Break down projects, write tested and extensible code, collaborate with product and engineering teams, monitor system health, troubleshoot issues, participate in on-call support, and contribute to code reviews and team development.

Design, build, and operate backend services for Bestow’s insurance platform using Python, Go, Java, and PostgreSQL. Collaborate on technical decisions, integrations, carrier onboarding, and scalable platform capabilities. Mentor engineers through reviews and pairing, improve production reliability and observability, participate in on-call support, and communicate technical decisions in a remote-first environment. Use agentic AI coding tools daily and help establish effective AI-assisted development practices.

Provides cross-team technical leadership for complex backend initiatives, modular architecture, monolith modernization, API and platform standards, production operations, and AI-assisted engineering adoption. Designs shared patterns for services, data, eventing, security, testing, observability, deployment, and reliability. Partners with Product and Engineering leadership, mentors engineers, participates in incident response, and drives technical strategy without formal authority.

Build, test, ship, and operate production backend features with minimal guidance. Design APIs, background jobs, integrations, data models, migrations, and bounded services while maintaining security, performance, observability, and reliability. Review code, improve automated testing, investigate production issues, address technical debt, participate in operational support, and collaborate asynchronously with product, frontend, infrastructure, and security teams. Use AI coding tools responsibly by validating and correcting generated output.

Owns delivery of backend money movement and card ledger systems, leading engineers through complex problems and ambiguity. Collaborates with product, design, analytics, and engineering stakeholders; defines scalable technical solutions; supports system availability, monitoring, on-call operations, code quality, and engineering standards. The role also includes mentoring and developing team talent while building highly available distributed systems for Affirm’s financial products.

Leads architecture and hands-on development of scalable backend systems and APIs supporting real-time applications. Owns the engineering lifecycle, writes high-performance code, establishes testing and reliability practices, resolves production issues, guides technical roadmaps, collaborates cross-functionally, and mentors engineers. The role requires expertise in object-oriented backend development, distributed cloud systems, automated testing, system monitoring, and technical leadership.

Lead a team and portfolio of backend engineering projects to build cloud-based, microservices-driven solutions. Mentor engineers, collaborate with product managers, and implement scalable systems using Java/Python/Node/Go/Scala, containers, orchestration, databases, and AWS services to meet regulatory and customer needs.

Design, build, and operate Rust services for account creation, identity verification, KYC/CIP decisioning, and asynchronous outcome delivery. Develop provider integrations, testable decision logic, secure PII workflows, policy-driven market configurations, and reliable cloud-native architecture using GCP and Kubernetes. Lead technical design reviews, establish cross-team contracts, respond to incidents, and mentor engineers while improving onboarding approval rates and time-to-funding.

Own and lead the technical direction of a major codebase section while designing, building, testing, documenting, and maintaining secure, scalable API-based decisioning products. Partner with product, engineering, and security teams on agile delivery, troubleshoot production issues, meet SLA requirements, and participate in an on-call rotation.

Build and scale Go backend services for agent quoting, configuration, and application submission. Partner with adjacent teams, resolve partner-specific edge cases, provide architectural leadership, write unit and integration tests, review code, and promote automation, CI/CD, and continuous improvement. The role expects daily use of AI coding tools and ownership of services across distributed systems and microservices environments.

Design, build, and operate backend Go services and smart contracts that mint, burn, bridge, and reconcile wrapped assets across multiple chains. Own end-to-end delivery from smart contract deployment through API design, SLOs, and production rollout. Drive asset migration pipeline improvements, run on-call operations, build observability and runbooks, and mentor junior engineers.

Design and implement secure, scalable backend services for voice agents, integrate AI models and telephony, improve inference, debug concurrent systems, and collaborate with Product to deliver features end-to-end.

Build and own Java and Spring Boot microservices for licensing, case management, payments, documents, and notifications on Google Cloud. Design stable REST APIs using OpenAPI, implement PostgreSQL persistence, asynchronous event flows, scheduled processing, authentication and authorization, payment integrations, observability, testing, and CI/CD. Collaborate with technical, integration, mobile, and frontend teams throughout greenfield platform delivery.

Design, build, and scale backend microservices and APIs for high-volume financial and transactional systems. Implement secure integrations with payment processors and banks, develop data-driven account and transaction services, ensure data integrity and performance, and collaborate cross-functionally to deliver production-grade fintech features with strong development practices.

Interns will contribute to frontend, backend, mobile, or data projects. Responsibilities include building web and mobile applications, developing Java and Spring Boot services, managing databases, analyzing data with Python and SQL, integrating RESTful APIs, writing tests, debugging systems, creating reports and visualizations, and supporting AWS deployment and maintenance.

Lead the architecture and development of backend platforms, REST and GraphQL APIs, service integrations, security patterns, and AI/LLM integration capabilities. Build observability and reliability infrastructure, contribute to full-stack features using TypeScript and Next.js, and establish engineering standards across the team. Ensure HIPAA-compliant handling of PHI while owning complex systems from architecture through production operations.

Design, build, and operate distributed backend systems using Go, TypeScript, GraphQL, Kafka, AWS, and Kubernetes. Lead modernization, migration, and event-streaming initiatives; own reliability, observability, CI/CD, and production operations; consult with enterprise clients on architecture and delivery; and contribute to technical training, conferences, and community activities.