Staff Software Engineer, Backend (Grader)Why we're looking for youOwner is the leading all-in-one platform for independent restaurants. Operators use Owner to run their online ordering, websites, menus, marketing, and customer experience. Tens of thousands of restaurants depend on us every day to run their business.
Grader is Owner's free restaurant health report. A restaurant owner submits their URL and gets a clear view of where they're losing money online: website performance, Google presence, menu quality, and more. It's one of the most visible products we build and one of the fastest-growing, with significant scale growth ahead and new AI-powered scoring capabilities launching on top of it. The backend powering all of this needs to be fast, resilient, and built to scale.
If you want to own the backend of one of Owner's most strategically important products and set the platform foundation before a major expansion - this is that role.
This role is 100% remote and can be based anywhere in the United States and Canada.
Our Tech Stack- Backend: Node.js, TypeScript
- Databases: MongoDB, PostgreSQL
- Infrastructure & Observability: Datadog, AWS, Temporal
The impact you'll have- Own the backend services and data pipelines that power Grader scans end-to-end - from ingesting third-party presence signals (Google, Yelp, menus, LLM GEO signals) to serving results reliably at scale
- Harden the platform before expansion - reduce latency, increase uptime, and build the observability and alerting layer the team needs to confidently scale Grader into new scoring dimensions
- Establish platform foundations - shared abstractions, operational runbooks, and architectural patterns that reduce toil and give other engineers a reliable base to build on
- Partner closely with PLG product and the AI Agents team as Grader evolves into a broader AI-powered tool for restaurant owners
What we're looking for- 7+ years, with meaningful time owning backend services in production
- Experience building and operating data pipelines, third-party integrations, and async processing systems at scale
- Proven track record improving system reliability - observability, alerting, incident reduction, and making operational health a team habit
- Experience at a product-focused startup or scale-up where you owned systems end-to-end
- High degree of cross-functional collaboration - past colleagues in product, design, and business would speak highly of your teamwork
- Strong sense of ownership and drive, excellent communication, and a proactive approach to identifying and solving problems
Compensation and benefits- The estimated starting base salary range for this role is $220K-240K depending on level, location and experience, plus a generous pre-IPO equity package
- Other benefits include comprehensive health coverage, work from anywhere (remote-first workplace), unlimited PTO - plus extra fun perks!
