Software Engineer - Backend

About Nominal

Nominal is building the software infrastructure powering the world’s most advanced hardware systems — from spacecraft and autonomous vehicles to next-generation industrial machines. Our platform ingests high-rate telemetry, validates complex autonomy software in real time, and enables engineers to iterate faster without sacrificing safety or precision. We’re a small, fast-moving team of engineers and operators who own problems end-to-end, work across disciplines, and thrive on challenges at the intersection of hardware and software.

As a dual-use platform, we serve top-tier commercial and defense customers, including the U.S. Navy, United States Air Force, Shield AI, and Anduril. We’re backed by Sequoia, General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, and Lightspeed Ventures. Our team draws experience from SpaceX, Palantir, Anduril, Applied Intuition, and other leading companies — united by a common mission: enabling hardware engineers to push the boundaries of advanced technology with speed, safety, and precision.

We're looking for a Backend Software Engineer, where you'll develop and maintain high-performance distributed systems for processing and storing telemetry data. You will also help design scalable storage solutions, optimize system performance, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver effective data solutions.

🚀 About the role :
• Build and maintain distributed systems that process and store telemetry and sensor data.
• Design scalable storage solutions to manage large, real-time datasets.
• Improve system performance and reliability, making sure everything runs smoothly at scale.
• Work with engineers from other parts of the company to support specific customer needs.
• Help set the technical direction of the backend, sharing your experience to guide early career engineers.
• Stay on top of new developments in data engineering and apply what’s useful to improve our platform.

⚡ Skills that accelerate us:
• 4+ years building and maintaining distributed systems with a focus on performance and reliability.
• Strong with languages like Java, Go, or Rust, and comfortable writing clean, maintainable code.
• Practical experience with cloud services (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and tools like Docker, Kubernetes, and Terraform.
• Understanding of storage solutions—Parquet, Druid, InfluxDB, ClickHouse, TimescaleDB, or similar— and experience with real-time data and telemetry systems.
• Familiarity with technologies like Apache Arrow, Kafka, Spark, or Flink, plus experience with distributed databases.
• Ability to explain your ideas clearly to others, whether they’re technical or non-technical.

✨ Benefits/Perks:
• 🏥 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 🏖️ Unlimited PTO and sick leave
• 🍽️ Free lunch, snacks, and coffee
• 🚀 Professional Development Stipend
• ✈️ Annual company retreat

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.

ITAR Requirements
To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.