Backend Engineer - Platform Data

Vannevar is a defense technology company building AI to deter our adversaries. In the 21st century, conflict moves at algorithmic speed and foresight equals firepower. Our agentic AI is purpose-built to compete with China—from cross-Strait conflict to gray zone coercion. Trained on the most mission-relevant datasets in defense, our technology models adversary behavior, simulates campaigns, and recommends the best course of action to decision makers. Our AI systems are some of the most trusted in the industry and actively used on the front lines of the Indo-Pacific to keep the peace and save lives.

Exceptional technology starts with exceptional people. Vannevar is a small agile team combining world-class engineers with veteran strategists who bring deep expertise in defense and tradecraft. We’re building a company defined by mission impact, user empathy, and disciplined growth. In just three years, we grew from $3M to $80M in ARR, achieved early profitability, and reached unicorn status—proving that disruption doesn’t require an ego, and staying power doesn’t mean standing still.

About the role

The Data Platform team is responsible for the pipelines, search, and identity systems that are foundational to Vannevar’s flagship platform and agentic workflows. The systems we build and operate define and enforce standards for data processing, storage, access, and retrieval across a growing suite of 10+ products.

You will be part of a team that builds and manages this business-critical infrastructure. In this role, you’ll have the opportunity to serve as a technical leader—shaping patterns for enterprise-grade performance, scalability, reliability, quality, and security across the broader organization.

You’ll partner closely with product engineering teams to standardize and centralize shared infrastructure, reducing duplication and improving developer velocity. You’ll also collaborate with our Information Security team to ensure our systems meet the stringent security and compliance requirements of DoD environments. Finally, you’ll have an opportunity to craft the long-term strategy for the platform, guiding architectural decisions and investments that enable the company to scale safely and sustainably.

What you’ll do

• Drive the design, implementation, and evolution of core platform infrastructure and shared services.

• Lead mission-critical projects to build and scale foundational platform capabilities.

• Work closely with engineers across the organization to adopt shared infrastructure and evolve existing and new products.

• Partner with security and Mission stakeholders to help define and enforce standards for access, data protection, and system integrity.

• Influence architecture, technology selection, and engineering standards across the company.

• Grow your engineering skills by solving complex, high-impact technical problems in platform and infrastructure systems.

What we’re looking for

• You have 7+ years of hands-on experience building core product infrastructure and distributed systems that support and empower product engineering teams.

• You have strong system design skills and can make thoughtful tradeoffs around performance, reliability, scalability, and cost.

• You have experience leading technical initiatives that span multiple teams and systems, and driving adoption through influence.

• You have contributed to systems operating at meaningful technical and organizational scale.

• You have experience with modern cloud technologies such as AWS, Azure, or GCP, and containerized environments like Docker and Kubernetes.

• You have experience working on secure systems that handle sensitive data and operate under strong security requirements.

• You have an exceptional ability to communicate complex technical concepts to a broad audience, including engineers, cross-functional partners (e.g., product and design), and end users.

• U.S. Person status is required as this position will require the ability to access U.S. only data systems.

Competitive Salary
The salary range for this position is $150,000 - $215,000 + equity. Within the range, individual pay is determined by experience, relevant education, and/or training.

Comprehensive Benefits
We’re proud to offer competitive benefits that support our employees. Some key highlights of our benefits package include:

• Health, dental, and vision insurance

• Remote friendly with WeWork access

• Unlimited PTO, shared downtime during the federal holiday calendar, and company-wide off time at the end of each year

• 401(k) match

• Lifestyle & wellbeing stipends

• Salary top-up during military reserve duty

• Fully paid parental leave

• Child and pet care reimbursement during travel

Vannevar is an equal opportunity employer, and qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, or disability status.

We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply, even if you don't feel like you're a perfect fit. If you're passionate about contributing to our mission, we'd love to hear from you!

IMPORTANT NOTICE
We are committed to protecting the privacy of all applicants. Official emails from the company will come from an @vannevarlabs.com domain. Under no circumstances will a legitimate representative from our company contact you to request passwords, financial information, or other sensitive personal data. Please be vigilant of potential scams.