---
title: 'Staff Backend Software Engineer at Carbon, Inc.'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/staff-backend-software-engineer-carbon-inc-sunnyvale-california-k8wc3tvf8f2j'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-09'
---

# Staff Backend Software Engineer at Carbon, Inc.

- **Company:** Carbon, Inc.
- **Location:** Sunnyvale California, United States
- **Posted:** 2026-07-29
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/carbon/jobs/5197948007

## Job description

At Carbon, our mission goes beyond 3D printing.  We are enabling creators everywhere to make what the world needs, right now.  Our company is built on the idea that diverse fields of study must come together to solve intractable problems. We have grand ambitions to create technology that will influence industry around the world. You will be joining a diverse team with a vibrant culture, where team success is as important as celebrating individual contributions.

Help us change the world and we will help you change yours.

Working at the intersection of hardware, software, and molecular science, Carbon delivers on the promise of 3D printing by helping commercial customers move beyond prototyping to produce real-world parts. Every one of those parts depends on a printer in a customer's factory staying online, up to date, and in perfect two-way conversation with our cloud.

We are looking for a Staff Backend Engineer to own the services that live on that seam between our cloud and our global fleet of printers. You will design and build the backend systems that provision, update, and communicate with printers in the field, own major initiatives end to end, and set a high bar for how we build Linux-based systems that have to be right the first time, on hardware we can not physically touch.

You will:

- Own the Services Behind the Fleet: Be a core owner of the backend services that manage printer identity, connectivity, provisioning, updates, and telemetry. You will keep them resilient and highly available as our fleet grows, and drive the design of new services that unlock new device capabilities.
- Build the Linux Layer Underneath: Design and improve how our printers come up, install, and update, from initial bring-up through in-field OS updates and rollbacks. You will bring deep Linux fundamentals to bear on real problems in the field, where "reinstall the machine" is not an option.
- Own the Network Between Cloud and Printer: Design the protocols, connections, and failure modes that keep a printer talking to our cloud reliably from anywhere in the world, including flaky networks, restrictive corporate firewalls, and long offline periods. You will care about latency, back-pressure, retries, and the boring reliability details that make the whole system feel solid.
- Drive Major Initiatives End-to-End: Take full ownership of substantial backend initiatives, from design through production rollout on real printers. You will influence architectural decisions and help shape the long-term direction of the cloud-to-device platform.
- Own Reliability Alongside the Team: Participate in on-call for the services you own, drive incident response and postmortems, and turn recurring pain into permanent fixes. You will help other teams operate the services that depend on yours.
- Technical Leadership & Mentorship: Work as a senior technical contributor across backend, infrastructure, and device teams. You will translate real product and operational needs into robust designs, raise the bar through design and code review, and mentor engineers around you.

You have:

- 8+ years of experience building and operating production backend services, with a track record of driving major initiatives end to end.
- Deep Linux fundamentals: processes, filesystems, networking, systemd, boot and init, package management, users and permissions, and the ability to debug production Linux problems from first principles.
- Strong networking skills: TCP/IP, TLS, DNS, HTTP, WebSockets, NAT and firewall traversal, and comfort reasoning about connectivity between services in the cloud and devices on customer networks.
- Hands-on experience with OS provisioning and lifecycle: installing, imaging, updating, and rolling back Linux systems in the field, including A/B update strategies or similar patterns.
- Expert-level proficiency in at least one modern backend language (C++, TypeScript, or similar), and comfort dropping into others when needed.
- A production mindset: you think about failure modes, blast radius, observability, and upgrade paths from the start, and you have carried a pager for systems you built.
- Strong communication, debugging, and problem-solving skills.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

Nice to have:

- Experience building IoT or connected-device backends at scale.
- Hands-on experience with MQTT or similar pub/sub protocols in production, including broker operations, QoS trade-offs, and offline/reconnect semantics.
- Experience with fleet management, remote diagnostics, or OTA update systems.
- Familiarity with edge compute, embedded Linux distributions, or bring-up of new hardware.
- Familiarity with Bazel or another polyglot monorepo build system.

You do not need to match every listed expectation to apply for this position. Here at Carbon, we know that diverse perspectives foster the innovation we need to be successful, and we are committed to building a team that encompasses a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and skills.

At Carbon, we look at the person holistically and carefully consider a wide range of factors when determining salary. The compensation bracket for this position is $209,600 - $314,400 (per year). In order to maintain equitable internal pay practices, we aim to hire new employees near the midpoint of $262,000, taking into account your experience, work location, certifications, and the unique skills you bring to the role. If you are not based in our Sunnyvale or Santa Clara, CA office, the range above will be adjusted for the geographical differential associated with your actual work location.

For more information on how we modify your pay based on your location, please refer to our [geographic differentials chart](https://docs.carbon3d.com/files/legal/carbon-us-geo-differential-rates.pdf).

Carbon also offers to our eligible employees a comprehensive total rewards package that includes equity, benefits, and time off programs. For details on our total rewards package, visit https://www.carbon3d.com/about/life-at-carbon.

#LI-Onsite #LI-MRWC By clicking the “APPLY NOW” button and submitting your job application, you agree you have reviewed the complete [Privacy Notice for Employees, Independent Contractors and Job Applicants](https://docs.carbon3d.com/files/legal/carbon-employee-applicant-and-ic-privacy-notice.pdf), which explains the categories of personal information we collect about you, the purposes for which the categories of personal information shall be used and your rights with respect to our use of such personal Information.

## About Carbon, Inc.

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Carbon provides an integrated platform of 3D printing hardware, software, and materials that enables engineers and designers to produce functional end-use parts at scale.
- **Entity Type**: Private
- **Headquarters**: Redwood City, California, United States (with additional offices in Sunnyvale, CA)
- **Founded**: 2013
- **Founders**: Joseph DeSimone, Alex Ermoshkin, Ed Samulski

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Additive manufacturing / 3D printing (hardware, software, and materials)
- **Target customers**: B2B – enterprise and industrial organizations across automotive, healthcare, consumer goods, and industrial design
- **Mission**: “To enable creators everywhere to make what the world needs right now.”

## Products & Services
- **[Carbon DLS™ Platform](https://www.carbon3d.com/platform)**: A combination of Digital Light Synthesis (DLS) printers, Design Engine software, and a portfolio of high-performance photopolymer resins. Used for prototyping and production-at-scale.
- **[Carbon Design Engine](https://www.carbon3d.com/platform)**: Computational design software that allows users to create unique geometries tuned to specifications.
- **[Carbon Custom Production Software](https://www.carbon3d.com/platform)**: Enables bespoke designs at any scale.
- **[Carbon Production Network (CPN)](https://www.carbon3d.com/platform)**: A global ecosystem of design firms and contract manufacturers that offer production services using Carbon technology.
- **Industry-specific solutions**: Digital Dentures, Clear Aligners, automotive parts, consumer products (e.g., adidas midsoles), and medical devices.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available
- **Key Metric**: Annual Revenue – not publicly available; Total Funding – not disclosed in provided sources
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not listed in provided sources; key customers include adidas, Ford, and Becton Dickinson ([carbon3d.com](https://www.carbon3d.com/about))
- **Growth Signals**: Hundreds of global organizations use the platform; expansion into healthcare (digital dentures, clear aligners) and automotive; growing production network

## Competitive Advantages
- **Proprietary DLS technology**: Uses light and oxygen to produce parts with end-use mechanical properties and surface finish.
- **Integrated platform**: Hardware, software, and materials are designed to work together, reducing iteration time and enabling production scaling.
- **Broad material portfolio**: Engineering-grade resins that meet industry standards (e.g., medical, automotive).
- **Production network**: Global partner ecosystem that allows customers to scale without owning printers.

## Strategic Focus
- Continue expanding the Carbon Production Network and industry-specific applications (healthcare, automotive, consumer goods).
- Deepen integration of software tools (Design Engine, Custom Production) to enable mass customization.
- Advance materials science to unlock new use cases in end-use production.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture & Values**: Emphasizes diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (“Innovate from Diverse Perspectives”). Values include integrity, collaboration, accountability, and ambition ([carbon3d.com/about/life-at-carbon](https://www.carbon3d.com/about/life-at-carbon)).
- **Work Model**: Hybrid – three days per week in the office to foster collaboration; some roles may be fully or partially remote ([carbon3d.com/about/life-at-carbon](https://www.carbon3d.com/about/life-at-carbon)).
- **Benefits**: Comprehensive medical, dental, vision; HSA contributions; mental health resources; family-forming benefits (infertility, adoption, surrogacy); flexible time off with paid holidays and year-end closure; generous paid parental bonding leave; monthly wellness days; fitness/wellness and commuting subsidies ([carbon3d.com/about/life-at-carbon](https://www.carbon3d.com/about/life-at-carbon)).
- **Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)**: Three active ERGs (e.g., for People of Color) that are company-sponsored and focused on inclusion and belonging.
- **Volunteering**: Paid volunteer time (up to 8 hours per quarter) through the “Carbon Cares” initiative.
- **Intern Program**: 10–15 interns each summer with mentor program, social events, and hands-on projects.

## Sources
1. [Carbon – Who We Are](https://www.carbon3d.com/about)
2. [Carbon Homepage](https://www.carbon3d.com/)
3. [Carbon Careers (Greenhouse)](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/carbon)
4. [Life at Carbon](https://www.carbon3d.com/about/life-at-carbon)
5. [Carbon Platform](https://www.carbon3d.com/platform)

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