Senior Backend Engineer at BuildOps in San Francisco, CA

BuildOps is the leading vertical AI platform for commercial specialty contractors. We combine field service, project management, scheduling, and finance in a single, modern cloud platform built specifically for the trades. Our mission is to power the operations behind the world’s most important buildings and infrastructure by giving contractors software that actually works the way they do.

We are an AI-native company and are investing deeply in intelligent automation across our product and our internal engineering tooling. You’ll be joining a team that moves quickly, holds a very high bar for quality, and cares deeply about the impact our work has on customers who keep the world running.

The Role:

As a Senior Backend Engineer, your primary focus will be building and enhancing the backend platform that powers BuildOps. You’ll work on a cross‑functional squad to design and implement scalable, reliable services and APIs that support our web, mobile, and integration experiences.

You’ll own projects end to end—from requirements and design through implementation, testing, deployment, and ongoing operation—while mentoring other engineers and helping to shape the technical direction of the team. You care deeply about quality, performance, and reliability, and you are excited to use AI tools to move faster and ship

What You'll Do:

• Build and maintain backend services and APIs (GraphQL and REST) using Node.js and TypeScript
• Design and evolve real-time, event-driven systems that power core BuildOps workflows
• Drive the full software development lifecycle: requirements, design docs, implementation, testing, deployment, and maintenance
• Write clean, well-tested, well-documented code with appropriate abstractions and automated tests
• Improve observability and reliability with the right metrics, logging, tracing, and alerting
• Profile and optimize services for latency, throughput, and cost efficiency.
• Use and help standardize AI-powered tools for code generation, refactoring, debugging, test creation, and analysis
• Collaborate closely with product, design, and other partners to translate business needs into technical solutions and tradeoffs
• Participate in and often lead technical design reviews, code reviews, and architecture discussions
• Mentor other engineers, share best practices, and help raise the overall bar for the team

What We Look For:

Must‑Have Skills

• 5+ years of professional experience in backend or full‑stack development, including 1–2+ years in a senior or lead capacity on large-scale applications
• Strong experience building distributed web applications and backend services (microservices or service‑oriented architectures)
• Deep hands-on experience with Node.js (preferably with TypeScript) in production environments
• Experience designing, building, and maintaining GraphQL (Apollo) and/or REST APIs
• Solid database design and modeling experience (SQL and/or NoSQL) and understanding of tradeoffs between different storage technologies
• Strong computer science fundamentals: data structures, algorithms, concurrency, and object‑oriented or typed design
• Proven experience using AI tools to enhance your development workflow (e.g., code generation, refactoring, debugging, test creation, or analysis), plus curiosity about emerging AI technologies
• Ability to take ownership of projects end to end and operate proactively in an ambiguous, fast‑paced environment
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills; you listen well, seek context, and explain technical decisions clearly

Nice To Have Skills

• BS or MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field
• Experience with:
  • Event-driven architectures and messaging systems
  • Cloud platforms (e.g., GCP, AWS, or similar)
  • Containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes)
  • Additional backend languages or ecosystems (e.g., Python) for services, automation, or data pipelines
• Experience with observability tooling (metrics, logging, tracing) and performance profiling in distributed systems
• Exposure to machine learning or data-driven systems

Why BuildOps:

• Mission-driven impact: Your work directly helps the contractors who build and maintain the commercial buildings we all rely on
• AI-native culture: We expect and support engineers to be power users of AI and automation, continually finding smarter, faster ways to build
• High‑caliber teammates: Work with experienced engineering, product, and design leaders who hold a high bar and care deeply about craft
• Ownership & growth: Real autonomy, clear expectations, and support to grow your scope and impact over time
• Collaborative environment: We operate with an “all for one” mindset—cross‑functional teams work together to solve problems and win as a company

Compensation:

• $168,000 - $210,000 base salary range + annual bonus

What we offer:

• Generous equity grant, become an owner in our company!
• A comprehensive benefits package
• Flexible PTO and hybrid work schedules
• One-time work-from-home allowance
• Hubs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, and Raleigh with hybrid work schedules and lunch provided for in-office days
• Company events and team-building activities, both in-person and virtual
• Fast-paced, collaborative, and dynamic work environment
• Opportunities for growth and career advancement
• Chance to work with cutting-edge technology and innovative solutions
• The chance to get in on the ground floor and build something truly groundbreaking for ourselves and our amazing customers

We welcome applicants from across the U.S. where we are registered to do business and able to support employment. Currently, this excludes the following states: Alaska, Hawaii, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming. This list is based solely on operational and compliance considerations and is reviewed from time to time as our footprint grows.

About BuildOps

Join BuildOps, the largest commercial trade platform in the country, as we transform the multi-billion dollar commercial contracting industry!

We’re not just talking incremental improvements—we’re talking a full-scale revolution, empowering the hardworking heroes who build and maintain the infrastructure that keeps our world running. See why contractors choose Buildops here.

This is your chance to be part of a rocketship. We’re fresh off a $1 billion valuation and a $127M Series C funding round (part of over $275M raised to date) led by industry-leading investors like Meritech Capital, BOND, and SE Ventures, backed by Schneider Electric (Reuters, TechCrunch, LA Business Journal) . Our latest investors join our team of industry heavyweights like Next47, former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, former Salesforce President Gavin Patterson, and Boost Mobile CEO Stephen Stokols. Their investment is fueling our aggressive growth and our commitment to equipping contractors with AI-driven tools to conquer chaos, boost efficiency, skyrocket profitability, and ultimately, deliver exceptional service.

At BuildOps, we’re changing the game and doing the best work of our careers. You’ll be a key player in a company that’s truly making a difference for the backbone of our economy. If you’re ready to tackle big challenges, work with a passionate team, and build something extraordinary, BuildOps is the place for you. 🚀

BuildOps is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

BuildOps will consider qualified applicants with a criminal history pursuant to the California Fair Chance Act pursuant to applicable local and state laws.

BuildOps recruiters will only contact candidates through official channels and will never ask for payment, banking details, or sensitive personal information during the interview process. Verify all openings at https://buildops.com/careers. Report suspicious outreach to http://reportfraud.ftc.gov and fraud@buildops.com. We review every report, but may not be able to respond individually. BuildOps is not responsible for losses from fraudulent postings.