Senior Backend Engineer
DuckDuckGoBase Salary
$179k - $179k/yr
Responsibilities
- Lead complex backend projects across company-wide objectives.
- Write pragmatic, performant, and testable code using Perl, Go, and Node.js.
- Build and improve consumer-facing backend systems for Search, Duck.ai, and DuckDuckGo’s privacy products.
- Implement AI-assisted answers while maintaining a privacy-first approach.
- Develop sophisticated data-processing pipelines that maintain search relevancy.
- Solve product issues and make technical decisions based on user impact and data.
- Collaborate remotely with peers and eventually mentor experienced engineers.
- Support the career growth of engineers and the development of the Backend Team.
Requirements
- At least 7 years of professional experience primarily focused on backend systems for consumer-facing products.
- Product acumen and the ability to reason about technical tradeoffs in terms of user impact.
- Familiarity with AI agent tooling, evaluation frameworks, RAG pipelines, and prompt engineering.
- Fundamental understanding of complex data structures and algorithms.
- Ability to develop new solutions and improve existing code.
- Data-driven analytical skills for decision-making, stakeholder alignment, and experiment-oriented delivery.
- Solid project management abilities.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Previous experience leading and mentoring experienced engineers and supporting their career goals.
Benefits
- Remote-first work environment with a flexible arrangement and no core hours.
- Annual compensation of $178,500 USD plus stock options.
- Company-sponsored health benefits for eligible team members based in the United States.
- Paid parental leave, office setup support, and co-working allowances.
- Company all-hands meetup and team retreat travel, expected at least twice per year.
- Full-time commitment averaging 40 hours per week.
- Background check required as a condition of joining.
About DuckDuckGo
At DuckDuckGo, we believe the best way to protect your personal information from hackers, scammers, and privacy-invasive companies is to stop it from being collected at all. That's why millions of people choose DuckDuckGo over Chrome and other browsers to search and browse online. Our built-in search engine is like Google but never tracks your searches, and our browser blocks ads, trackers, and cookies that collect your data. It also offers private, useful, and optional AI, including Duck.ai, which lets you chat privately with ChatGPT, Claude, and other AIs, all in one place. Oh, and our browser is free. We make money from privacy-respecting search ads, not by exploiting your data. Take back control of your personal information with the browser designed for data protection, not data collection. Available to download on Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android.