Staff Software Engineer, Backend

Headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, Archer is a leader in the next-gen aerospace sector building an end-to-end advanced air mobility platform that delivers air taxis, unmanned aircraft systems (“UAS”), aviation-related physical artificial intelligence (“AI”) solutions, and other technologies to customers worldwide across the commercial aerospace and defense sectors.

Our sights are set high and our problems are hard, and we believe that diversity in the workplace is what makes us smarter, drives better insights, and will ultimately lift us all to success. We are dedicated to cultivating an equitable and inclusive environment that embraces our differences, and supports and celebrates all of our team members.

Archer is best known for Midnight, our electric aircraft — this role isn't on that program. The AI Products Org builds consumer software for the general aviation industry. There's a lot we're not ready to talk about publicly yet, so this posting stays vague on purpose. What we can say: the products are real, they ship, and people use them every day.

As a Lead Backend Engineer here, you'd own the backend behind a mature consumer product, one that's been featured in the app stores multiple times and has a large, loyal user base on iOS and Android. The backend handles high-volume, real-time data and serves both the apps and a commercial API with paying customers. It works. It has also been around a while, and it's moving to new infrastructure and you'd lead that migration.

What You’ll Actually Do:

• Own the backend end to end: architecture, reliability, cost, on-call, and its roadmap
• Migrate the existing production stack to new infrastructure without users or API customers noticing. Plan it, sequence it, and know when to roll back
• Learn the current system well before replacing any of it. Some of it is worth keeping
• Design and build what comes next: new data pipelines, new APIs, and the backend for features that don't exist yet
• Keep the commercial API fast, stable, and documented. Real customers depend on it
• Work closely with the iOS and Android engineers on API contracts and what the apps actually need
• Help hire and set the engineering bar as the team grows
• Work the way this team works: AI-assisted development is the default here, not a novelty. We use Claude Code daily and expect you to be fluent with agentic coding tools, or to get fluent fast. We'll be able to tell which

What You Need:

• BS/MS/PhD degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Operations Research, Aerospace Engineering, or a related quantitative field.
• 10+ years of software engineering experience, mostly backend
• You've owned a production backend, not just contributed to one. We'll ask what you ran, what broke at 2am, and what you changed afterward
• At least one major migration you led on a live system with real users. Tell us how it went, including the parts that didn't
• Experience with high-volume or real-time data: streaming, ingestion, time-series, or similar
• Strong opinions on API design
• Cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or similar), infrastructure as code, and monitoring you actually rely on
• You can make architecture calls with incomplete information and explain them to people who aren't engineers
• Comfort using AI tools as a core part of how you build, with the judgment to know when the output is wrong

Bonus Qualifications:

• Geospatial data experience
• You've run a public or commercial API, including the billing and rate-limiting side of it
• Audio or media streaming experience
• Aviation knowledge, or a real interest in it. Pilots and aviation nerds, this is your moment
• You've shipped in a regulated or safety-adjacent industry and know how that changes engineering culture

About The Team: AI Products is a roughly 100-person software org inside a company of aerospace engineers, and we expect to grow substantially over the next year. You get the resources and momentum of a real org, but the products themselves are early. If you want to hear more about what we're building before you apply, you can't. Apply, and we'll tell you plenty.

Please note that this job description is intended to provide a general overview of the position and does not include an exhaustive list of responsibilities and qualifications

At Archer we aim to attract, retain, and motivate talent that possess the skills and leadership necessary to grow our business. We drive a pay-for-performance culture and reward performance that supports the Company’s business strategy. For this position we are targeting a base pay between $175,000.00 - $215,000.00. Actual compensation offered will be determined by factors such as job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

Archer is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to job applicants with physical or mental disabilities, and those with sincerely held religious beliefs. Applicants who may require reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should provide their name and contact information to Archer’s People Team at recruiter contact. Reasonable accommodations will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

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Certain positions may be eligible for visa sponsorship.

Archer is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusivity in the workplace. All aspects of employment are decided on the basis of merit, qualifications, and business needs. We do not discriminate based upon race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

Archer Aviation does not engage with external recruiting agencies/individual recruiters with whom it does not have a prior written agreement. Archer reserves the right to make use of any unsolicited resumes that it receives and bears no responsibility for payment of any fees asserted from the use of unsolicited resumes. If you are a recruiting agency or individual recruiter wishing to do business with Archer, please reach out to recruiter contact. All employment processes are managed by the Archer People Team.