Backend Engineer
US$169,000 – US$250,500 / yr base salary
Posted 15 Oct 2026
Advertised as “Lead Backend Engineer”
BranchFactor Summary
The original posting with the fluff stripped out
- Expected experience
- 10+ yrs
- Management level
- People management
- Employment
- Remote
- Visa sponsorship
- Not offered
| Base salary | US$169,000 – US$250,500 / yr |
|---|
Field of studyComputer Science (or related)
Study levelBachelor's
WE ARE GAMEMAKERS
Who we are: We are a diverse team of developers driven by a passion for our art, united by our core values and inspired by a culture of inclusivity to build amazing games that thrill players everywhere. We pursue growth and innovation in an environment of safety and trust. Our culture is built on the belief that the more varied voices in our collective will strengthen our team and our games. We are looking for our next teammate who will raise our bar and make us better.
We are currently working on Project ETHOS, a new free-to-play, 3rd person rogue-like hero shooter and an exciting evolution on the genre!
Who You Are:
31st Union is looking for a Lead Backend Engineer to lead the team that builds and runs our studio-hosted services. You will manage backend engineers in our US and EU studios, own the architecture of our services and infrastructure, and write code alongside the team. You are the first point of contact for backend technical decisions and backend incidents. This role reports to the Director - Online Services.
This role is based in our San Mateo, California studio and is open to fully remote candidates.
Responsibilities:
Team Leadership
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Manage backend engineering team: hold regular 1:1s, set goals, give performance feedback, and lead hiring.
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Run the backend team's planning: maintain the backlog, estimate work, and set sprint priorities against the online services roadmap.
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Set the team's engineering standards for code review, testing, documentation and on-call readiness.
Architecture and Development
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Own the architecture of our studio-hosted services and infrastructure, including service boundaries, data models, APIs and deployment topology.
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Scope backend work for new game features.
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Write and review technical designs for new services and major changes.
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Implement and review implementations for proprietary studio backend services.
Releases and Deployment
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Align backend roadmap with studio release schedule.
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Diagnose, fix and deploy backend hotfixes through the studio hotfix process.
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Maintain the continuous integration pipelines and deployment automation for our services.