Top Backend Engineer Jobs in Chicago, IL

Design, build, test, and maintain high-volume, low-latency backend applications. Lead software development across the full lifecycle, analyze requirements, create technical designs and documentation, resolve technical issues, propose infrastructure improvements, and support architectural reviews. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align technical solutions with business objectives while applying modern development practices and cloud technologies.

Design, build, operate, and maintain highly available distributed telemetry systems for Grafana Cloud and open-source projects. Deliver features end to end, improve reliability and performance, review code and designs, manage releases, participate in follow-the-sun on-call rotations, and collaborate remotely with teammates and customers. Work primarily with Go across Kubernetes-based cloud infrastructure and observability systems such as Mimir, Loki, Tempo, and Pyroscope.

Design, build, operate, and maintain large-scale distributed telemetry systems for Grafana Cloud and open-source projects. Deliver features from concept through production, improve reliability and performance, participate in design reviews and on-call rotations, contribute to roadmap decisions, and collaborate remotely with engineers. The role focuses on Go-based cloud services running on Kubernetes across AWS, GCP, and Azure, with observability, DevOps, and customer-focused software development responsibilities.

Build and operate scalable database systems for an AI-native, multi-tenant SaaS data platform. Responsibilities include ingestion, query planning, distributed query execution, storage and data formats, retrieval APIs, tenant isolation, usage tracking, observability, and service reliability. The role requires architectural ownership, pragmatic experimentation, cross-functional collaboration, and production delivery across cloud-native environments.

Design, build, and improve scalable backend systems that collect hard-to-access OSINT; build pipelines and ETL for messy data; collaborate with product and mission teams; mentor engineers and ensure reliable data delivery for DoD workflows.

Build and operate backend features for payments, fraud detection, compliance, and user management. Design microservices, integrate with banks and card networks, improve performance and reliability, and contribute to architecture decisions. The role requires independent end-to-end delivery, collaboration with product and compliance teams, and development using Python, Flask, SQL/NoSQL databases, and cloud infrastructure.

Design, scale, and optimize ClickUp's search infrastructure using OpenSearch/Elasticsearch. Improve relevance, speed, and real-time indexing, build vector search capabilities, create evaluation frameworks, and collaborate with AI/backend/product teams to integrate and troubleshoot search at scale.

Build and own the graph layer and RAG architecture enabling agent reasoning over full patient context. Select graph DBs, design query patterns, and ensure temporal coherence. Implement event-driven Kafka pipelines for auditable, immutable agent workflows and enforce ReBAC permissions. Prioritize safety and scalable AI-assisted workflows, participate in spec and plan reviews, and drive architecture decisions.

Lead the technical direction and architecture of the Foundations platform team, owning authentication, authorization, SSO, secrets management, tenancy, and core platform services. Design APIs, drive services through launch, make technical decisions, establish engineering standards, and mentor engineers without formal management authority. Partner with engineering and product leaders to align execution with priorities.

Build and maintain high-performance, resilient SDKs across multiple programming languages and platforms. Develop features, improve reliability, collaborate with engineering and product teams, maintain open-source repositories, and influence technical and product decisions. The role requires strong software engineering fundamentals, polyglot development ability, library-building experience, production-quality coding, and expertise in unit, integration, load testing, and benchmarking.

Leads the design, development, and maintenance of complex backend software systems. Owns significant features end to end, makes architectural decisions, improves scalability and performance, ensures code quality, mentors engineers, and collaborates with cross-functional teams. Builds production-ready C# and .NET APIs within microservices and containerized environments, using cloud databases and services. Participates in code reviews, testing, debugging, and continuous improvement.

Design and build robust backend services and secure APIs for finance and reader applications. Implement authentication, payments, subscriptions, and finance workflows. Design Postgres/Redis schemas, integrate with financial APIs (BSE Star MF, NSE) and DRM services, and ensure compliance-friendly data handling.

Build Nitra Business Banking backend infrastructure, including account opening, payments, ledgers, transaction processing, reconciliation, APIs, and financial integrations. Design reliable money movement across ACH, wires, RTP, and FedNow while ensuring auditability and financial correctness. Partner with sponsor banks and processors, make architecture decisions, document systems, identify risks, and mentor engineers. The role also integrates banking capabilities with cards, BillPay, expense management, accounting, and healthcare payment products.

Design, build, and operate backend services supporting external penetration testing, including Python APIs, workflow orchestration, ETL pipelines, AWS data lakes, GraphQL and graph APIs, Kubernetes infrastructure, and observability systems. Own service performance, scalability, uptime, deployment, and production operations while collaborating with product, design, and frontend teams. Contribute to architecture, technical documentation, platform stability, and user-facing launches.

Design, develop, deploy, and maintain secure, scalable Java and Spring Boot services for a multi-tenant ecommerce SaaS platform. Build REST APIs, optimize MySQL data access, operate AWS workloads, and support CI/CD, observability, testing, and production troubleshooting. Contribute to architecture and technical decisions, mentor engineers, use AI-assisted development tools responsibly, and help maintain PCI DSS compliance.

Develop, scale, and maintain core backend APIs within a TypeScript/NestJS monolith for supply chain modules (OMS, WMS, MES). Implement secure payment and logistics integrations, caching with Redis, async/event-driven workflows, and observability (OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Loki). Support AI agent orchestration and ensure transactional integrity using PostgreSQL.

Build reusable backend platforms and developer-facing tooling for performance testing, analysis, reporting, and AI-assisted engineering workflows. Enable service teams to independently incorporate performance testing into development and CI workflows through self-service capabilities, documentation, templates, diagnostics, and guidance. Partner with engineering teams, influence adoption, generalize solutions, and provide expertise on complex performance challenges.

Design and implement backend services, modernize legacy systems into microservices, ensure strong testing and production observability, and collaborate with Product and Engineering teams. The role requires independent project ownership, strong system design, AI-assisted development using tools such as Claude or Cursor, effective communication with nontechnical stakeholders, and adaptability in an ambiguous, fast-changing environment.

Senior backend engineer responsible for designing and implementing new features, scaling and optimizing the platform, improving Postgres and Elasticsearch performance, fine-tuning LLMs, and making architectural decisions. Collaborate with engineering team, take ownership of features, write performant, maintainable code, and help shape product and infrastructure for data-intensive applications (NLP, search, indexing).

Leads cross-team backend initiatives and technical architecture for GitLab’s Core DevOps platform. Responsibilities include modernizing a monolith, establishing service, API, data, security, testing, and observability standards, guiding Go and Kubernetes practices, supporting Rust adoption, participating in incident response, mentoring engineers, reducing technical debt, and advancing AI-assisted engineering workflows.

Design and scale Cohere’s Model Vault backend and inference platform. Lead architecture for authentication, deployments, billing, metering, customer lifecycle, and cloud control-plane services. Build reliable distributed systems with strong guarantees for security, privacy, consistency, isolation, observability, and failure recovery. Drive technically complex initiatives from threat modeling and architecture through implementation, production rollout, operations, and iteration at enterprise scale.

Build, maintain, and scale e-commerce backend services using Python and Django. Develop REST APIs and features for catalogs, inventory, carts, checkout, orders, payments, and accounts. Integrate third-party services, optimize databases and performance, implement security controls, write tested code, resolve production issues, and collaborate on architecture, planning, reviews, deployment, and CI/CD.

Design and implement scalable backend services for MoneyGram’s core transaction and API platforms. Responsibilities include architecture, microservices, APIs, event-driven systems, integrations, cloud development, CI/CD automation, testing, deployment, operational excellence, and engineering standards. The role collaborates with product, engineering, and QA teams, mentors junior engineers, leads complex technical solutions, and influences technical direction in an agile environment.

The Senior Software Engineer will design and develop backend systems and APIs, mentor other engineers, and resolve complex integration challenges in healthcare technology.

Design, implement, and maintain scalable, secure, high-performance backend systems and public-facing APIs. Collaborate with Product and Data Science teams, lead initiatives improving efficiency and system performance, and support customer satisfaction. Work may involve distributed systems, pricing engines, identity management, authentication, authorization, API versioning, deprecation, and rate limiting.