Sr. Backend Engineer

Mountain View, CA
Engineering /
Full-time /
Hybrid
Our Mission: Driving technology always feels old. Not by a little bit. We believe vehicles can be a thousand times smarter, safer, and more connected to the world around us, and our mission is to see it happen. In 2019, we joined forces with Honda as their first startup acquisition, and now we’re expanding our vision into building the future of electric vehicles (BEV) for millions of people around the world.

Why Drivemode: Drivemode is the new software and user experience division of Honda that is focused on digital experience for new electric vehicles. You will be joining an exciting startup environment that combines impactful work, competitive compensation, and excellent benefits. By becoming a part of our team, you'll contribute to our crucial mission of changing the way people engage with vehicles and help solving the world's environmental challenges. This presents an exceptional opportunity to be at the forefront of innovation and drive Honda's success in the EV market.

About the role: The Senior Backend Engineer is responsible for designing, delivering, and operating services on cloud infrastructure that support drivers on day-to-day activities such as navigation, preferences, authentication, and so on. You will work directly with product owners, and mobile and embedded application engineers to understand the product needs for online services you will be in charge of. You might also engage directly with external teams to learn about existing corporate systems, experiment with them, and participate in architecture and integration decisions.

We’re looking for someone who has a strong sense of ownership of product features and quality, is enthusiastic about trying new technologies, and does not hesitate to do whatever it takes to get things done, even if outside your usual responsibility area.

What You Will Do

    • Design testable, scalable, and observable backend services for a global mobile application
    • Develop backend service solutions, including cloud infrastructure services selection and setup, monitoring and alerting, and integration with several 3rd-party APIs.
    • Work closely with Mobile App developers, 3rd party API developers, and software architects to collaborate on solutions that serve Honda drivers with the best experience
    • Troubleshoot production issues, develop and release hotfixes
    • Contribute to CI/CD pipeline infrastructure

What We Are Looking For

    • 7+ years using statically-typed languages such as Java/Kotlin/Scala, C/C++, or Rust to ship production code
    • A track record of shipping performant API integrations and interfaces
    • Experience with a major cloud provider such as GCP, AWS, or Azure
    • Experience architecting, building, and operating cloud-native backend services
    • A flexible attitude and entrepreneurial mindset. Be willing to engage outside of your usual responsibility area, learn new technologies, and tackle challenges beyond backend development
    • 5-10% travel within the US and Asia is required, depending on the project.

Nice to Have

    • Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) such as Terraform or Cloudformation
    • Japanese fluency
    • Experience with GraphQL APIs, including query tuning and managing multiple resolvers
$180,000 - $248,000 a year
This is the position's total compensation package including the company's bonus structure. This position also comes with full benefits. Actual compensation packages are based on a wide array of factors unique to each candidate, including but not limited to demonstrated skill set, years and depth of relevant experience, and some role-dependent factors. We welcome direct conversations with each candidate about compensation in all of our initial calls.
EEOC Statement
Drivemode is proud of a very diverse team with employees coming from 5 continents/20 countries as of today. Diversity in our workplace has played an important part in our success; we recognize each employee’s unique background, knowledge, experiences, ideas, and viewpoints which are all critical in developing a product that has the greatest impacts on drivers all over the world.

Drivemode provides equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, religion, color, age, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or any other characteristics that make you unique.