Staff Software Engineer, Archer
Backend
$190-237k
Office located in San Jose, CA
Electric air taxis
Be an early applicant
Electric air taxis
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$190-237k
Office located in San Jose, CA
1001+ employees
Company mission
To unlock the skies, freeing everyone to reimagine how they move and spend time.
Role
Who you are
- BS/MS degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field
- 5+ years of professional software engineering experience with a balanced focus on backend systems and data pipeline development
- Proficiency in Java, Python and/or Rust to build backend services
- Awareness of distributed messaging systems and event-driven architectures, such as Apache Pulsar or Kafka
- Understanding of data modeling concepts related to relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL) and in-memory data structures (e.g., Redis/Valkey)
- Familiarity with containerization (Docker) and modern cloud environments (AWS, GCP, or Azure)
- Able to leverage AI coding assistants to increase velocity while fully understanding and taking absolute ownership of all backend code and schemas you commit
- Strong problem-solving skills and a collaborative mindset to handle the complexities of real-time data flow
Desirable
- Experience with column-oriented or time-series data storage and analytical file formats (e.g., Parquet)
- Familiarity with geographic/spatial data processing and mapping APIs
- Basic understanding of Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, and GitOps workflows
- Prior experience or a deep interest in aerospace, aviation, or high-throughput tracking systems
What the job involves
- As a Staff Software Backend Engineer, you will build and scale the core application logic, streaming pipelines, and data layers that power our real-time AI tracking platform
- You will focus on the intersection of backend service architecture and data engineering—ensuring high-frequency telemetry data is ingested via streaming queues, accurately modeled, and reliably served to downstream web apps and AI models
- Design, develop, and maintain high-performance backend systems, microservices, and APIs alongside real-time data pipelines
- Implement stateful stream-processing applications to clean, transform, and window high-frequency telemetry and event data
- Architect robust data models and schemas optimized for low-latency writes and fast real-time queries across relational, time-series, and caching layers
- Collaborate cross-functionally with frontend and AI/data science to expose clean, structured data and integrated AI insights via scalable APIs
- Participate in the full software development lifecycle, including writing integration tests, code reviews, deployment, and monitoring pipeline health
- Investigate, debug, and optimize application bottlenecks, data serialization overhead, and query performance in production
Our take
With traffic, noise, and emissions becoming major challenges for urban life, Archer is building electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, led by its flagship model, Midnight, offering a cleaner, quieter alternative to traditional short-haul travel. The idea is simple: replace long car rides with quick, sustainable flights that lift off vertically, fly over the gridlock, and help reduce urban pollution. It's a bold shift in transportation, but one that could meaningfully change how we navigate cities in the years ahead.
Midnight is designed to make these short flights practical, safe, and efficient. Its electric powertrain significantly reduces noise and emissions compared to helicopters (one of the biggest barriers to adopting urban air mobility at scale). However, eVTOLs face hurdles before becoming an everyday reality, including regulatory approvals, infrastructure build-out, and the operational testing needed to prove long-term safety and reliability. Archer is addressing these challenges with major manufacturing investment, deep engineering partnerships, and ongoing flight testing in the US and abroad.
Even with these barriers, Archer has been moving from success to success. The company is set to be the official air taxi provider for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles. And its recent acquisition of Hawthorne Airport in LA will serve as both a launch site and an innovation hub for next-generation, AI-powered aviation operations. On the commercial side, Archer's partnerships with United Airlines and its growing international presence signal strong industry confidence. Combined with newly expanded funding and successful long-range flight tests, Archer sure is a promising player in eVTOl aviation.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
44% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (1 round)
Jul 2020
$55.7m
SERIES A
Total funding: $55.7m
Company HQ
Tasman and Zanker, San Jose, CA
Leadership
Adam Goldstein
(Founder & CEO)Began their career in Financial Services, before co-founding Vettery, a talent marketplace, in 2012. Founded Archer in 2018.
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