Principal / Senior Staff Backend EngineerApplication Deadline: 20 November 2026
Department: Engineering
Employment Type: Full Time
Location: Remote - USA
Compensation: $200,000 - $250,000 / year
DescriptionWe're looking for a Principal / Senior Staff Backend Engineer (IC5) to shape the technical strategy of ProphetX as a company. You'll be a recognized technical authority who solves our hardest problems, sets multi-year architectural direction for our exchange platform, and multiplies the impact of the entire engineering organization.
Key Responsibilities- Define the long-term technical strategy and architecture for the exchange platform, aligned to business and regulatory goals.
- Lead company-level technical initiatives with ambiguous scope and significant business risk or opportunity.
- Drive critical decisions on scalability, resilience, and security for systems operating in a CFTC-regulated environment.
- Evaluate and introduce new technologies, build-versus-buy choices, and engineering practices at an organizational level.
- Advise executive and product leadership on technical feasibility, risk, and investment.
- Mentor staff and senior engineers, and help shape hiring, leveling, and engineering culture.
- Represent ProphetX's engineering depth with partners, regulators, and the broader technical community where appropriate.
- Partner with product and leadership to influence roadmap and prioritization with technical insight.
- Proactively seek development opportunities and share knowledge with peers and junior engineers.
Skills, Knowledge and Expertise- 10+ years of backend and distributed systems experience, including a track record of org- or company-wide technical impact
- Expert-level command of Go, Java, C++, or Python, and of large-scale system design
- Proven experience architecting and evolving mission-critical, low-latency, high-availability platforms (exchange, trading, payments, or comparable)
- Mastery of event-driven architecture, real-time APIs, data systems, and cloud-native infrastructure
- Deep experience with reliability, security, and compliance in regulated environments
- History of mentoring and growing senior and staff engineers
- Exceptional communication and influence skills, from engineers to executives
- Proactive, growth-focused, and highly adaptable with a strong sense of ownership
- Prediction markets, fintech, sports betting, or exchange experience is a plus
Compensation & Ownership- Competitive compensation aligned to role and market
- Equity opportunities so you share in what we're building
- A clear connection between impact and reward
Health & Wellbeing- Medical, dental, and vision coverage
- Flexible time off built on trust and accountability
- A culture that respects your time and avoids unnecessary meetings
Remote & Flexible Work- Fully remote within the U.S.
- Flexibility to work in the way that helps you do your best work
The Role- Set the multi-year technical direction for a live, CFTC-regulated exchange platform, as a recognized technical authority across the company
- Take on a high-impact IC role with direct influence on executive and product decisions, build-versus-buy choices, and engineering culture
- Help define what resilient, secure, and compliant exchange architecture looks like as a brand-new asset class scales
