---
title: 'Senior/Staff Backend Engineer at Blackbird Labs Inc'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-backend-engineer-blackbird-labs-inc-new-york-tww2fmtbdsw8'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-12'
---

# Senior/Staff Backend Engineer at Blackbird Labs Inc

- **Company:** Blackbird Labs Inc
- **Location:** New York, NY
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2025-05-07
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/blackbird-labs-inc/25a21dd6-d9d4-4b0a-b6b4-2c13efebd481

## Job description

About Blackbird: Blackbird Labs is a loyalty and payments platform establishing meaningful connections between the world’s best restaurants and their customers.

Served up in 2022 by Ben Leventhal, co-founder of Eater and Resy, Blackbird offers a fully customizable loyalty programming platform for restaurants and a consumer app designed to make every guest feel like a bonafide VIP no matter where they dine. Backed by Union Square Ventures, a16z, Amex Ventures, Variant Fund, and other forward-thinking investors, Blackbird is out to revolutionize the restaurant industry.

About Our Team: At Blackbird, our values guide everything we do and our talent principles define the key traits we seek in our employees.

We have passion for our product – committed to our mission and instinctively think like and go the extra mile for our customers. We are elite performers – striving for excellence, going above and beyond to achieve exceptional results, and learning quickly with horsepower, drive, and grit. We make others better – taking initiative to elevate others, giving and receiving feedback, and championing a culture of growth. We hold one another accountable to living out our talent principles as we march together to achieving our mission.

## About the Job

At Blackbird, we believe every guest should feel like a VIP the moment they walk into a restaurant. Whether it’s last-minute tables, welcome drinks, off-menu items, or exclusive perks, we’re building a platform that helps restaurants identify, connect with, and reward their guests in meaningful and personalized ways. Our vision? The more you check in at your favorite spots, the more you unlock—from unique rewards to seamless direct messaging for reservations. With each visit, you’ll earn $FLY, our universal rewards currency, which you can use across our network of outstanding restaurants. As a Senior Backend Engineer, you’ll be responsible for designing, developing, and maintaining our core APIs. You’ll work closely with product managers, designers, and fellow engineers to define and execute the technical vision behind our payments and loyalty platforms. You’ll contribute to key architectural decisions, help establish engineering best practices, and play a critical role in scaling the platform. We’re looking for someone who thrives in a fast-paced, high-ownership environment and is excited to build products from the ground up.

## Responsibilities

- Design, build, and maintain core backend APIs
- Collaborate with product, design, and engineering peers to deliver features aligned with business goals
- Contribute to system architecture and implement scalable, robust solutions
- Uphold and promote backend best practices, with a focus on code quality, testing, and performance
- Mentor junior and mid-level engineers and foster a collaborative, growth-oriented team culture
- Participate in product and design discussions, offering backend perspectives on implementation and feasibility

## Requirements

- 5+ years of experience building and deploying backend APIs
- Strong proficiency in Kotlin or another statically typed JVM language
- Deep experience designing and maintaining RESTful APIs using domain-driven design principles
- Solid understanding of SQL databases, including schema design and performance tuning
- Strong attention to detail and commitment to delivering high-quality user experiences
- Ability to work autonomously and make sound decisions in a fast-moving environment
- Experience mentoring engineers and contributing positively to team culture
- Comfortable working cross-functionally with product, design, and other stakeholders

Nice to Haves

- Experience with the Spring framework and database abstraction layers such as Hibernate
- Familiarity with the U.S. payments ecosystem, including debit, credit, and ACH processing
- Exposure to DevOps practices, including AWS infrastructure and Terraform
- Interest or experience in blockchain, especially with cryptography fundamentals
- Experience productionizing generative AI features (e.g. retrieval-augmented generation, prompt engineering, or model integration)

Pay Transparency Notice & Benefits Depending on your work location and experience the target annual salary for this position can range from: $180,000-$220,000 USD. Disclosure in accordance with New York City's Pay Transparency Law. Full time offers from Blackbird may also include stock options, benefits (including medical, dental, vision, flexible time off, 401(k)), and some not-so-standard, extra-fun perks — subject to applicable taxes and based on eligibility.

Commitment to Equal Opportunity Blackbird Labs is committed to diversity in its workforce and is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sex, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation or any other basis protected by applicable law. Blackbird will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law. For US applicants, you may view the Know Your Rights notice [here](https://www.eeoc.gov/sites/default/files/2022-10/22-088_EEOC_KnowYourRights_10_20.pdf). Additionally, Blackbird participates in the [E-Verify program](https://static-assets.coinbase.com/e-verify.pdf).

Join us and find out what the best work of your career could look like here at Blackbird.

## About Blackbird Labs Inc

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Blackbird Labs provides a loyalty and membership platform that helps restaurants identify, connect with, and reward their guests through a Web3-powered app and payments network.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B, $85M total funding)
- **Headquarters**: New York, New York, United States
- **Founded**: 2022
- **Founders**: Ben Leventhal (co-founder of Eater and Resy)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Restaurant technology, loyalty programs, payments, Web3
- **Target customers**: Restaurants (B2B) and their diners (B2C); focuses on independent and group-operated dining establishments
- **Mission or purpose statement**: “To allow restaurants to identify, connect with, and reward guests, in meaningful and ongoing ways.” [welcometothejungle.com](https://app.welcometothejungle.com/companies/Blackbird-Labs)

## Products & Services
- **Blackbird App (Consumer)**: A free iOS app that acts as a digital wallet where users can manage memberships, view $FLY points balance, monitor recent activity, and message restaurants. [qedinvestors.com](https://www.qedinvestors.com/companies/blackbird-labs-inc)
- **Blackbird Loyalty Platform (Restaurant)**: A fully customizable loyalty programming platform that lets restaurants design rewards, identify top guests, and build direct relationships.
- **Flynet**: A transactions network launched in February 2025, designed to replace outdated payment systems in restaurants with lower fees and integrated loyalty. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/blackbirdlabsinc)
- **Blackbird Club**: A tiered cross-restaurant loyalty program introduced in April 2025 that allows diners to earn and redeem points across participating restaurants. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/blackbirdlabsinc)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total funding $85M; annual revenue estimated at $8.0M (private, likely based on headcount/revenue ratio). [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/blackbirdlabsinc)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: a16z, Union Square Ventures, Spark Capital (led Series B), QED Investors, American Express Ventures, Multicoin Capital, Shine Capital, Variant Fund, IAC, VaynerFund, Circle Ventures, Tribute Labs, and leading restaurant groups (Quality Branded, Rustic Canyon Family, Souvla, Brooks Reitz). [qedinvestors.com](https://www.qedinvestors.com/companies/blackbird-labs-inc)
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Headcount grew 12.1% YoY to 61 employees (April 2026). [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/blackbirdlabsinc)
  - Expanded into new markets: San Francisco, Charleston, South Carolina. [welcometothejungle.com](https://app.welcometothejungle.com/companies/Blackbird-Labs)
  - Named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2025. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/blackbirdlabsinc)
  - Active job postings increased 111.1% year-over-year (19 open roles as of mid-2026). [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/blackbirdlabsinc)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Web3-native loyalty**: Blackbird uses blockchain-based $FLY tokens and embedded digital wallets (via Privy) to enable seamless, portable loyalty across restaurants, differentiating from traditional point systems.
- **Founder pedigree**: CEO Ben Leventhal previously co-founded Resy (acquired by Amex) and Eater (acquired by Vox), giving deep industry relationships and domain expertise.
- **Direct restaurant-guest connection**: The platform bypasses third-party aggregators, giving restaurants full ownership of customer data and relationships.
- **Integrated payments**: Flynet offers a lower-cost payment infrastructure that inherently ties into loyalty, creating a stickier ecosystem.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scaling Blackbird Club**: Expanding the cross-restaurant loyalty network to drive adoption among diners and restaurants.
- **Growing Flynet**: Rolling out the payments network to reduce transaction friction and fees for partner restaurants.
- **Geographic expansion**: Entering new U.S. markets beyond New York (San Francisco, Charleston, Denver, Los Angeles).
- **Hiring across functions**: Actively recruiting for engineering (blockchain, platform, fullstack), sales (account executives), marketing, and operations roles.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture & recognition**: Fast Company “Most Innovative Company” 2025; featured in The New York Times, Time, and The Wall Street Journal.
- **Engineering focus**: Technical team makes up 19% of staff; open roles include Senior Backend Engineer (Blockchain), Senior Platform Engineer (Infrastructure & AI), and Senior/Staff Fullstack Engineer. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/blackbirdlabsinc)
- **Work location**: Office-first culture with headquarters at 324 Lafayette Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY (SoHo). Remote/hybrid policy not explicitly stated, but most roles appear location-specific (e.g., Account Executive in NY, Denver, LA). [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/blackbirdlabsinc)
- **Growth opportunities**: Rapidly scaling company (12% headcount growth, doubled job postings) with Series B funding runway; employees have come from notable tech companies like Resy, Toast, Coinbase, DoorDash, and Nike.
- **Perks & benefits**: Not detailed publicly, but the company emphasizes “surprise and delight” for both guests and employees.

## Sources
1. [blackbird.xyz](https://www.blackbird.xyz/)
2. [linkedin.com/company/blackbirdlabsinc](https://www.linkedin.com/company/blackbirdlabsinc)
3. [qedinvestors.com/companies/blackbird-labs-inc](https://www.qedinvestors.com/companies/blackbird-labs-inc)
4. [welcometothejungle.com/companies/Blackbird-Labs](https://app.welcometothejungle.com/companies/Blackbird-Labs)
5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/blackbird-labs-inc](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/blackbird-labs-inc)

## Other roles at Blackbird Labs Inc

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