Sr. Software Engineer, Backend

Description

The Team + The Role

The Core team builds features and platform capabilities that power critical areas of the Pendo product experience. Our work supports high-stakes customer use cases, drives how our systems evolve, and creates a consistent experience across the platform. We operate in complex product areas where delivery speed, system reliability, and long-term maintainability are equally important.

As a Sr. Software Engineer, you own complex technical challenges and drive solutions independently. You apply sound engineering judgment, partner with product and design, and take accountability for outcomes, not just output. You break ambiguous work into small, continuously shippable increments, bring others along, and improve the codebase as you deliver.

This role is based in our Raleigh office.

What this looks like day-to-day

End-to-end feature ownership: Own complex, ambiguous features from problem definition through delivery. Break work into small, independently shippable increments to maintain consistent progress and deliver customer value.

Production-quality engineering: Write reliable, maintainable production code and select testing approaches based on risk and system impact. Apply safe rollout patterns, including feature flags and incremental deployments, to reduce delivery risk.

Production reliability: Respond quickly to production issues within your area of ownership and drive them to resolution. Identify root causes and implement improvements that prevent recurring problems.

AI-enabled development: Integrate AI tools into daily engineering workflows for code generation, debugging, test writing, and task decomposition. Share effective practices that improve how the team uses AI to build and deliver software.

Technical collaboration: Provide actionable code reviews and contribute constructively to engineering discussions and planning. Partner with product, design, and fellow engineers to align technical decisions with product outcomes.

Continuous improvement: Identify recurring friction in code, tests, tooling, and development processes. Proactively implement improvements that strengthen engineering quality and team efficiency.

Clear technical communication: Create documentation, commit messages, and technical notes that make decisions and implementation details easy to understand. Maintain enough written context for teammates to continue work without requiring verbal handoffs.

Requirements

• Beyond the qualifications, we hire through a specific lens. These aren't buzzwords; they're the things we'll actually look for in how you talk about your work.
• You're a builder, not a maintainer.
• You're most energized when there isn't a clear path yet, and you get to define it. You don't wait for direction; you identify gaps, shape solutions, and drive them forward. At Pendo, great Sr. Software Engineers don't just follow instructions; they operate as strategic advisors, influencing decisions, guiding stakeholders, and elevating how we work.
• You're AI-curious - genuinely.
• You're not using AI tools occasionally. You're rewiring how you work around them. You're faster, sharper, and more prolific because of it, and you bring that energy to everything — how you approach your work, how you prep, how you communicate, how you think. We want someone who sees AI as a multiplier, not a shortcut.
• 5+ years of software engineering experience delivering customer-facing SaaS product features in production environments.
• Strong proficiency in at least one backend programming language: Go, Java, Python, or C++.
• Deep understanding of scalable web architecture, API design, and performance optimization.
• Experience with AWS or GCP cloud platforms and both SQL and NoSQL databases.
• Demonstrated ability to independently structure ambiguous technical work into small, deliverable increments and drive execution through completion.
• Experience designing and implementing unit, integration, and end-to-end tests, with sound judgment about when to apply each approach.
• Familiarity with safe deployment and rollout practices, including feature flags, canary releases, or comparable approaches.
• Active use of AI tools in software development workflows.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively across engineering, product, and design teams.
• Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science, or equivalent practical experience.
• Nice-to-haves
• Experience improving team-level engineering tooling, development processes, or developer workflows beyond individual feature delivery.
• Experience mentoring engineers and strengthening team capabilities through technical documentation, constructive code reviews, or knowledge sharing.
• Experience contributing to shared platform capabilities that support multiple product areas.
• About Pendo
• Pendo was founded in 2013 by former product managers, who combined their heads and hearts to build something they wanted but never had as product managers: a simple way to understand and attack what truly drives product success. Our mission is to improve society's experience with software. Come join one of the fastest-growing startups, supported by best-in-class institutions like Battery Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Spark Capital and Meritech.
• Pendo Core Values: Bias to Act, Hone Your Craft, The Team is Pendo, and Maniacal Focus.
• Location: Pendo is a hybrid culture. In-office 3 days per week unless designated remote.
• Compensation: The expected salary range for this role to be performed in Raleigh, NC is $135,000 - $150,000.
• Benefits: Highly competitive, employer-heavy coverage (including $0 premium options), strong 401(k) match, equity, and flexible time off.
• EEOC: We are an equal opportunity employer and believe having diverse teams where everyone brings their whole self to Pendo is key to our success. We welcome all people of different backgrounds, experiences, abilities and perspectives.