Backend Software Engineer at Kerrigan Robotics (Santa Clara, CA)
Kerrigan Robotics· Santa Clara, CA· $140k–$205k·
Role details
Job description
The Role
We are looking for a Generalist Backend Engineer who thrives on building scalable, resilient distributed systems. In this role, you won’t just be “writing APIs”; you will be building the backbone of an automation platform that manages high-stakes robotics workloads. You are a pragmatic coder who values containerization, orchestration, and clean system design.
Key Responsibilities
● Service Development: Design and implement performant microservices in Golang. ● Orchestration: Deploy and manage services within Kubernetes, ensuring high availability and proper resource management. ● System Integrity: Utilize Docker for consistent environment packaging and NATS or similar for asynchronous messaging. ● API Design: Build clean, versioned APIs (gRPC/REST) that serve both our frontend and external integration partners. ● Maintainability: Actively participate in code reviews and contribute to a culture of automated testing and documentation.
Requirements
● 5+ years of experience in backend development with a focus on distributed systems. ● Core Stack: Professional experience with Go (Golang) in a production environment. ● Cloud Native: Strong proficiency with Docker and Kubernetes. ● Infrastructure Mindset: Familiarity with modern databases (PostgreSQL) and message brokers (NATS, RabbitMQ). ● Tooling: Experience with CI/CD pipelines and Git-based workflows. What This Role Is Not ● This is not a frontend or full-stack role; the focus is 100% on backend systems and infrastructure. ● This is not a "maintenance-only" role; you will be building new greenfield services.
Why work at Kerrigan Robotics
- Culture: Early‑stage startup with a veteran team from Tesla, Google, Rivian, and CARIAD – strong emphasis on technical excellence and real‑world impact.
- Work policy: Hybrid – employees work from the Santa Clara office with typical on‑site expectations (builtin.com).
- Engineering focus: Greenfield development of a mission‑critical platform; stack includes Go, Python, Kubernetes, NVIDIA Orin/Jetson, gRPC, NATS/RabbitMQ, PostgreSQL, and AI/ML frameworks.
- Open roles (as of early 2026): Engineering Lead – Platform & SRE, Backend Software Engineer, Senior Robotics Integration Engineer, Applied AI Software Engineer (builtin.com).
- Perks: Opportunity to work on cutting‑edge industrial AI, influence product direction, and collaborate with a globally distributed team (Lebanon, US, France, UK).