Staff Backend Engineer - Databases Tempo | US | Remote

Role overview

Set technical direction for a distributed tracing backend that supports trace search, span-derived metrics, and connections across observability data types. This staff-level position centers on moving the platform from foundational architecture toward product maturity, operational excellence, high-throughput performance, and new AI-driven workflows. The position is remote within the United States.

Responsibilities

- Lead multi-quarter technical programs from initial framing through rollout, such as trace aggregation APIs, autoscaling cells, customer limits, and query improvements. - Own architecture across ingestion, storage, query execution, and metrics generation while documenting decisions and managing performance, cost, and complexity trade-offs. - Build structured, deterministic, discoverable interfaces for people, downstream products, external integrators, and AI assistants. - Improve service reliability and efficiency by targeting write-latency objectives, reducing recurring incidents, automating operations, and lowering total cost per ingested volume. - Advance query performance for high ingestion rates and long-range searches while preparing for burstier, higher-cardinality workloads. - Partner with product managers and neighboring engineering teams to shape platform capabilities and unblock new observability experiences. - Mentor engineers and raise the technical bar through design reviews, clear decision-making, and cross-team influence.

Requirements

- Staff-level experience leading architecture and technical strategy for distributed systems, data platforms, or backend infrastructure. - Strong understanding of ingestion pipelines, durable storage, query engines, metrics systems, and large-scale service operations. - Demonstrated ability to lead ambiguous initiatives across multiple teams and carry them through production delivery. - Experience designing APIs that are reliable, machine-consumable, and suitable for external or downstream clients. - Track record improving performance, reliability, automation, service objectives, and operational cost. - Excellent communication, technical writing, collaboration, and mentoring abilities.

Benefits and work setup

- Remote role for candidates based in the United States. - Distributed, global environment with high autonomy, transparent communication, and an open-source-oriented culture. - The source describes equity participation, career development opportunities, and annual leave that includes designated company shutdown days.