Top Backend Engineer Jobs in Chicago, IL

Build and maintain Python backend services, internal tools, and automations; support Linux production systems; write and optimize MySQL queries; use and review AI-assisted development tools; collaborate with senior engineers; participate in code reviews, sprint ceremonies, documentation, troubleshooting, and incident response.

Lead the architecture, development, deployment, and reliability of scalable APIs for Afresh’s flagship AI ordering product. Partner with product, account management, and engineering teams to deliver integrated solutions, support the existing iPad application, and shape future product direction. Drive projects from conception through launch, enforce testing and release best practices, mentor junior engineers, participate in Agile ceremonies, and provide constructive code reviews.

Design and implement backend and real-time features in the GitLab monolith for portfolio planning at scale. Optimize PostgreSQL performance, evolve APIs (GraphQL/REST), build capacity planning and work-item hierarchies, create proofs of concept, maintain automated tests, support safe rollouts with feature flags and observability, mentor contributors, and participate in on-call and production troubleshooting.

Develop and maintain Tailscale’s control plane, relay infrastructure, identity integrations, open-source client code, and backend services. Design, test, document, and operate scalable software with strong observability and security. Participate in incident response and customer escalations, improve system efficiency and stability, and collaborate asynchronously with engineers, designers, and product managers throughout the product lifecycle.

Build and maintain data pipelines, PostgreSQL systems, Kubernetes infrastructure, deployment tooling, and SaaS integrations. The role includes infrastructure reliability, observability, incident response, security collaboration, Salesforce data flows, CI/CD, testing, debugging, and agile delivery. The engineer will connect data infrastructure with Techstars OS product teams and improve reliable, secure systems across the organization.

As a Staff Backend Engineer, you'll design and operate backend services, lead technical initiatives, ensure reliability, and mentor team members in a remote-first setup.

Design, build, and maintain scalable backend services and infrastructure for Roadie’s logistics platform. Identify performance bottlenecks, improve reliability, collaborate with Product, Data Science, and engineering teams, contribute to code reviews and technical practices, and own projects from concept through production.

Design, develop, and maintain scalable cloud-native backend applications using Node.js, React, and AWS services. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to support federal missions, troubleshoot complex issues, identify root causes, and deliver secure, high-performing solutions. The role also involves relational database and DynamoDB work, agile development, CI/CD practices, and adapting to new technologies.

Design, build, and maintain scalable backend services, APIs, databases, data flows, and infrastructure. Lead complex features from design through deployment while improving performance, observability, security, reliability, and testing. Integrate third-party systems, support cloud infrastructure and CI/CD practices, and provide technical mentorship and guidance to engineers.

Build and maintain backend services, APIs, and integration layers for a modular ecommerce platform. Integrate personalization, semantic and LLM search, DAM, PIM, SAP/HANA, ERP, analytics, and customer data systems. Use AI coding agents throughout development while validating code quality, security, performance, and reliability. Design scalable APIs, automated testing, observability, and reusable architecture while collaborating with internal teams, vendors, and implementation partners.

Designs, builds, and maintains scalable backend services, APIs, databases, data flows, and infrastructure. Leads complex features from design through deployment while improving performance, observability, security, testing, and reliability. Integrates third-party platforms, supports cloud infrastructure and CI/CD practices, and mentors engineers through technical guidance and knowledge sharing.

Build and maintain scalable backend services, RESTful and GraphQL APIs, database schemas, and cloud infrastructure. Own architecture decisions, optimize performance and reliability, improve CI/CD practices, collaborate across product and engineering teams, lead architecture sessions, review code, and mentor junior developers.

Build and ship backend systems and robust architectures for SMB and enterprise restaurant customers. Drive end-to-end development including planning, CI/CD, and productionization. Collaborate on product roadmap, iterate from user feedback, and contribute to team culture and growth.

Lead the design, architecture, development, deployment, and optimization of scalable .NET backend systems processing millions of daily healthcare transactions. Mentor developers, guide technical decisions, improve CI/CD pipelines, implement secure APIs, and collaborate with product stakeholders. The role requires expertise in .NET, C#, ASP.NET Core, cloud-native AWS services, Kubernetes, microservices, distributed systems, testing, observability, and secure software development.

Design and build scalable backend services and RESTish APIs for a multi-tenant streaming platform. Develop customer- and enterprise-facing web server backends in Go, ensure web application security, and support highly available cloud systems. Conduct code reviews, troubleshoot issues, and improve performance, reliability, scalability, and maintainability across global services. The role requires experience with high-traffic web services, distributed architectures, containers, and CDNs.

Develops, tests, enhances, and maintains Java backend applications and services for a mission-critical transportation system. Responsibilities include building RESTful APIs, integrations, business logic, database functionality, unit and integration tests, troubleshooting, code reviews, CI/CD participation, secure coding, documentation, and Agile collaboration. The role supports DevSecOps practices, DoD security requirements, system deployments, and occasional front-end integration with Angular.

Design, develop, and maintain scalable, high-performance backend and middleware services on the JVM using Java and Spring/Spring Cloud. Build and enhance microservices, work with AWS and Docker, implement SQL/noSQL solutions (MySQL, Elasticsearch), use Git-based source control and JIRA, collaborate across engineering, design, and QA, and mentor teammates while following best practices and Agile methodologies.

Design, build, test, deploy, and support scalable backend applications across the full software development lifecycle. Collaborate with product, UX, nutrition, vendors, and business stakeholders to define solutions and interfaces. Solve complex architectural problems, refactor code, mentor engineers, communicate technical direction, and develop distributed systems using cloud, big-data, and backend technologies.

Build and operate high-throughput backend services powering AI agent orchestration, connector integrations, and real-time data pipelines. Design scalable core platform services, collaborate with ML, frontend, and product teams, implement infrastructure-as-code and CI/CD, and mentor junior engineers to deliver reliable, AI-powered features.

As a Staff Engineer for Revenue, you'll shape technical vision and architecture for billing and pricing systems, ensuring correctness while enhancing cross-team collaboration.

As a Software Engineer, you'll design, build, and maintain IAM solutions, ensuring security and reliability while working with cloud computing standards.

Designs and scales high-performance backend web services and ETL pipelines supporting tens of thousands of transactions per second. Responsibilities include architecting fault-tolerant distributed systems, improving performance, developing monitoring and deployment strategies, collaborating across product and engineering teams, and supporting recruiting and onboarding. The role requires expertise in data-intensive systems, microservices, cloud architectures, and commercial SaaS products.

Build and operate scalable, multi-tenant backend services for Grafana’s SaaS application platform. Responsibilities include developing features, improving production operations, authoring and reviewing designs, shaping the roadmap, mentoring engineers, collaborating across teams, and participating in on-call rotations. The role requires distributed-systems experience, strong communication, customer ownership, pragmatic decision-making, and familiarity with or willingness to learn Golang.

Senior backend engineer responsible for setting technical direction, designing scalable distributed systems, building customer-facing web applications, mentoring engineers, and applying machine learning to large-scale healthcare data. The role requires Java, Scala, or Rust expertise, cloud systems experience, technical design leadership, cross-functional collaboration, and adoption of agentic engineering practices.

Drive technical strategy and roadmap for Affirm's Online Storage platform. Design and build multi-region, highly available datastore solutions and control planes for hundreds of databases. Automate schema migrations, disaster recovery, sharding, and performance tuning. Collaborate with product, SRE, and infrastructure teams, own operations and on-call readiness, and mentor engineers while setting code and design standards.