Software Engineer - Backend
Nominal
Software Engineering
Austin, TX, USA · Los Angeles, CA, USA · New York, NY, USA
USD 130k-230k / year
Posted on Jun 4, 2026
Software Engineer - Backend
New York, NY • Los Angeles, CA • Austin, TX
Engineering, Product, Design
In office
Full-time
About Nominal
Nominal is building the connected test and operations platform powering the world's most advanced hardware systems, from spacecraft and autonomous vehicles to next-generation defense programs. Our platform gives hardware engineering teams a single place to ingest data, analyze performance, automate test execution, and collaborate across every phase of development, so they can move faster without sacrificing safety or precision. We're a fast-moving team that owns problems end-to-end, works across disciplines, and thrives at the intersection of hardware and software.
We serve top-tier commercial and defense customers, from autonomy leaders like Anduril and Shield AI to next-generation aerospace teams like Hermeus and REGENT, and performance engineering teams like Pratt Miller Motorsports, alongside mission partners within the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force on programs where failure isn’t an option. We’re backed by Sequoia, General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, and Lightspeed. Our team draws from SpaceX, Palantir, Anduril, Applied Intuition, and other leading companies, united by a common mission: giving hardware engineers the tools to build the future with speed, safety, and confidence.
We're looking for a Backend Software Engineer; you’ll design and build the distributed infrastructure that powers Nominal’s telemetry and validation platform. This role is ideal for engineers who enjoy working close to the metal of distributed systems — reasoning about throughput, latency, data models, and failure — and who want to see their work directly enable real-world hardware. You’ll own critical backend systems end-to-end, from ingestion pipelines to storage engines to performance tuning in production.
🚀 About the role
- Architect and evolve distributed systems that ingest, process, and persist high-frequency telemetry and sensor data.
- Design storage and indexing strategies for large, time-series, and event-driven datasets with strict performance and correctness requirements.
- Tackle hard problems around scalability, backpressure, fault tolerance, and data consistency in real-time systems.
- Optimize hot paths, reduce tail latency, and improve reliability as the system scales with new customers and use cases.
- Collaborate closely with product, infrastructure, and customer-facing engineers to solve domain-specific problems for cutting-edge hardware teams.
- Influence backend architecture and technical direction, mentoring teammates, and raising the bar for system design across the org.
🔍 We're looking for someone with
- 3+ years building distributed systems where performance, reliability, and operational simplicity matter.
- Strong experience in Go, Rust, or Java, with an emphasis on correctness, clarity, and long-lived systems.
- Deep familiarity with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and production tooling like Kubernetes, Docker, and Terraform.
- Hands-on experience designing or operating storage systems — time-series databases, columnar formats, or analytics engines (e.g., ClickHouse, TimescaleDB, Druid, InfluxDB, Parquet).
- Experience with streaming or data processing technologies such as Kafka, Apache Arrow, Flink, or Spark.
- Comfort reasoning about distributed systems tradeoffs — latency vs throughput, consistency vs availability, abstraction vs control.
- Clear technical communication and a bias toward ownership: you design it, build it, ship it, and operate it.
✨ Benefits/Perks
- 🏥 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance
- 🏖️ Unlimited PTO and sick leave
- 🍽️ Free lunch, snacks, and coffee
- 🚀 Professional Development Stipend
- 🛠️ In-office hardware lab with a $250 project stipend
- ✈️ Annual company retreat
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.
ITAR Requirements
To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.
Compensation
The base pay range for this role is $130,000 – $230,000 per year.
First name *
Last name *
Email *
LinkedIn URL *
Phone number *
Location *
Resume *
Click to upload or drag and drop here
Cover letter
Click to upload or drag and drop here
This position requires access to information and technology that is subject to U.S. export controls. Your responses to the questions below will be used solely to determine your eligibility under U.S. law to receive information and materials subject to U.S. export controls. Are you any of the following “protected individual(s)” as defined in the Immigration and Naturalization Act, 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)? *
U.S. Work Authorization - Are you authorized to work in the United States? *
Will you require sponsorship from Nominal for employment now or in the future? (e.g, OPT, H1B visa)? *
Clearance Eligibility - Do you presently hold an active U.S. security clearance, or are you eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance? *
If you have held a U.S. security clearance in the past, what clearance level have you held? *
Voluntary Self-Identification
To comply with government reporting requirements, we invite candidates to participate in the self-identification survey below. Your completion of this form is entirely optional, and your decision will neither influence the hiring process nor any subsequent stages. Any information you choose to share will be kept confidential and stored in a secure file. As outlined in our Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we uphold a commitment to non-discrimination based on any protected group status specified in applicable laws.
Gender
Race
Race and ethnicity descriptions
Voluntary Self-Identification of Veteran Status
VEVRAA requires Government contractors to take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment protected veterans. To help us measure the effectiveness of our outreach and recruitment efforts of veterans, we are asking you to tell us if you are a veteran covered by VEVRAA. If you believe that you belong to any of the following categories of protected veterans, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.
Veteran status descriptions
Disabled veteran
A veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military and is entitled to disability compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to disability compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, or was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disabilityRecently separated veteran
A veteran separated during the three-year period beginning on the date of the veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S military, ground, naval, or air serviceActive duty wartime or campaign badge veteran
A veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge was authorized under the laws administered by the Department of DefenseArmed Forces service medal veteran
A veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military ground, naval, or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985 (61 Fed. Reg. 1209).Veteran status
Req ID: R71
