---
title: 'Senior Software Engineer, Backend at Bluesky'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-backend-bluesky-remote-03c30ssgrpkv'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-07'
---

# Senior Software Engineer, Backend at Bluesky

- **Company:** Bluesky
- **Location:** Remote
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-10-30
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-07
- **Apply:** https://jobs.gem.com/bluesky/am9icG9zdDqKFGlrmnbKOErDbeKIm8zZ

## Job description

Bluesky's mission is to transition the social web from platforms to protocols. We're building a federated social network where users have more power. Our team has decades of combined experience building distributed applications. As a backend dev, you'll build data infrastructure that powers Bluesky’s developer services and will be a critical part of transforming social media.

Working on our AT Protocol-oriented services, you’ll be building and maintaining systems running on dense, latest-generation, bare-metal servers running in our own racks serving hundreds of thousands of events per second.

Responsibilities:

- Scale our Go production services to hundreds of millions of users
- Build mission critical data infrastructure that powers much of the AT Protocol ecosystem
- Build services that scale across tens of terabytes of RAM, thousands of CPU cores, and petabytes of NVME storage

You might be a good fit if you:

- Have strong fundamental programming and software engineering skills
- Have extensive experience with Go (e.g. 3+ years)
- Have built scalable backend systems (1M+ ops/sec) (e.g. data services, load balancers, etc.)
- Have familiarity with the upper limits of operating systems, networks, and storage.
- Have significant experience with database systems (e.g. Postgres, MySQL, SQLite)
- Have some experience with with other data stores (e.g. Scylla/Cassandra, Redis, ClickHouse)
- Have a high bar for ownership and operation of production services.
- Like working on small, fast-moving teams
- Have read the AT Protocol docs and want to contribute

We're especially excited if you have:

- Previous experience working on social or Internet infrastructure at large scale

We're a fully remote team, though a significant overlap of working hours with US/Pacific is required. For full-time roles, we offer health, dental, and vision insurance.

To learn more about us, check out:

- [bsky.social](https://bsky.social/about)
- [atproto.com](https://atproto.com/) Please attach your resume and links to your GitHub, GitLab, or a portfolio of past work within the same attachment.

The anticipated base salary range for this position is $179,000 - $220,000, excluding equity. Equity will be considered in the total compensation package. The final base salary for this role will be based on the individual’s geographic location, as well as experience level, skill set, training, licenses and certifications.

## About Bluesky

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Bluesky is building an open, decentralized social networking protocol and a flagship app that gives users control over their experience, algorithm, and data.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B)
- **Headquarters**: Remote (HQ), with an office in Seattle, Washington, United States
- **Founded**: 2021
- **Founders**: Jay Graber (CEO & Founder)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Social Media, Decentralized Protocols, Open Source Software
- **Target customers**: B2C (end-users seeking an alternative social network), B2D (developers building on the AT Protocol), and enterprise/creator accounts (via domain-based identity and public APIs)
- **Mission or purpose statement**: “To develop and drive large-scale adoption of technologies for open and decentralized public conversation.”

## Products & Services
- **[Bluesky App]**: The primary consumer-facing social network built on the AT Protocol. Features include composable moderation (block/mute lists, labeling services), algorithmic choice (custom feeds), and account portability. Available on iOS, Android, and Web.
- **[AT Protocol]**: An open-source, federated protocol for building social apps. It provides standard formats for user identity, follows, and data, allowing apps to interoperate and users to move between services without losing their identity or connections.
- **[Attie (AI Research Tool)]**: An integrated tool that helps users make sense of the “Atmosphere” (Bluesky’s network). Features include surfacing trending topics, finding influential accounts, and generating personalized daily briefings. Recently added “Quests” for interactive research.
- **[Public APIs and Developer Ecosystem]**: Developers can use Bluesky’s public APIs to build bots, clients, custom feeds, and more, leveraging the open ecosystem without being locked in.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed (conflicting reports; some estimates suggest a post-Series B valuation in the hundreds of millions, but no official figure)
- **Key Metric**: **Total Funding: $149M** (as of 2025) | **Annual Revenue: ~$1.2M** (estimated, via LinkedIn) | **Users: Over 44 million** (as of May 2026)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Bain Capital Crypto (led Series B), Blockchain Capital (led Series A), Neo (seed), Jack Dorsey (initial seed), Alumni Ventures, Anthos Capital, Bloomberg Beta, Knight Foundation, True Ventures.
- **Growth Signals**:
    - Rapid user growth from ~5M in late 2023 to 44M+ by mid-2026.
    - Expanded from a single app to a full developer ecosystem with 40,000+ custom feeds.
    - Strong brand as the “anti-X” platform, attracting users from X/Twitter, Threads, and Mastodon.
    - Recent launch of Attie with Quests shows continued product innovation.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Protocol-first approach**: Unlike centralized competitors (X, Threads), Bluesky is built on the AT Protocol, meaning the network cannot be bought or controlled by a single entity. This provides a unique value proposition for privacy-conscious users and creators.
- **Account portability**: Users can change hosting providers without losing their username, friends, or posts—a significant differentiator vs. Mastodon and other federated networks.
- **Composable moderation**: Moderation is layered (automated, manual, and community labeling), allowing communities to self-organize around their own moderation preferences, unlike the top-down approach of centralized platforms.
- **Algorithmic choice**: Users can choose from thousands of custom feeds (or build their own), giving them control over their timeline rather than being subject to a single corporate algorithm.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scaling the protocol and developer ecosystem**: The company is focused on making the AT Protocol the standard for open social networking, attracting developers to build apps, bots, and moderation services on top of it.
- **Monetization without ads**: Bluesky has stated it will not sell user data or run traditional ads. It is exploring subscription models (e.g., premium features for creators) and developer services as revenue streams.
- **International growth**: With users in 12+ countries, the company is investing in localization, moderation tools for different languages, and partnerships to expand globally.
- **Governance as a PBC**: As a Public Benefit Corporation, Bluesky is committed to public good and transparent governance, with a board that includes open-source advocates and a stated mission to avoid being “bought by a single individual or organization.”

## Why Work Here
- **Remote-first culture**: The company is fully remote but expects some overlap with Pacific Time (PST). Employees are distributed across 12+ countries, including the US, Philippines, Japan, UK, and Germany.
- **Small, nimble team**: With ~42 employees, new hires can have significant impact on core product and protocol decisions. The engineering team is ~15 people.
- **Open-source ethos**: Engineers work on open-source code (AT Protocol, app clients, moderation tools) that is visible to the public. This is a strong draw for developers who value transparency and community contribution.
- **Mission-driven**: Employees are building a social network that is designed to be resilient to corporate takeover and censorship, which resonates with many candidates.
- **Notable perks**: While not detailed publicly, the company offers the flexibility of remote work, equity in a rapidly growing startup, and the opportunity to shape the future of decentralized social media.
- **Recent leadership**: Jay Graber (CEO/Innovation Officer), Paul Frazee (CTO), Rose Wang (COO) are hands-on leaders with deep backgrounds in decentralized tech and product development.

## Sources
1. [Bluesky About Page](https://bsky.social/about/)
2. [Bluesky FAQ](https://bsky.social/about/faq)
3. [Bluesky Jobs (Gem)](https://jobs.gem.com/bluesky)
4. [Bluesky LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/bluesky-pbc)

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