Senior Backend Engineer (Golang/Platform) at Bird

Bird launched micromobility. Now we’re shaping its future. We’re Bird, and we’re on a mission to transform the way the world moves one ride at a time. Our products, services, and people share one common goal: to make cities more livable by empowering people and communities everywhere to move freely, discover new possibilities, and create a cleaner, more connected future. To cleaner air. To calmer streets. To cities built for people. Who We Are Bird is a global leader in micromobility, dedicated to shaping the future of urban movement. Our cleaner, affordable, and on-demand mobility solutions are available in over 200 cities worldwide. We take a collaborative, community-first approach to micromobility. Bird partners closely with the cities in which it operates, leveraging our experience and safety-first technology to help them meet their shared mobility and climate goals and provide a reliable, affordable, and responsible transportation option for people who live and work there. Our award-winning electric vehicles have empowered more than eighty-seven million rides in cities around the world and helped riders take carbon-free trips in more than 200 cities globally. And our teams are constantly pushing boundaries and challenging the status quo in pursuit of a brighter future. Job Summary The Senior Software Engineer plays a pivotal role in designing, building, and optimizing high-quality software solutions. This position exists to provide technical expertise and ownership of complex features, ensuring scalability, reliability, and maintainability. The engineer is expected to tackle challenging technical problems, write clean and efficient code, and collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams. By mentoring junior engineers and adhering to best practices, this role contributes to the team's success and the overall delivery of Bird's product roadmap. Responsibilities • Design, implement, and optimize backend and infrastructure solutions to support business growth. Deliver at least one major feature or system enhancement per quarter that improves performance, scalability, or maintainability. • Work with product, data, vehicle and infrastructure teams to design and implement solutions that align with business needs. Provide actionable recommendations and technical feasibility assessments within agreed timelines. • Monitor and improve system health, proactively addressing performance bottlenecks and outages. Reduce system downtime by at least 5% annually through incident resolution and preventative measures. • Provide code reviews, technical guidance, and mentorship to junior engineers. Conduct at least one structured knowledge-sharing session per quarter and set individual development goals for mentees. • Improve CI/CD pipelines, automate deployments, and implement best practices to increase engineering efficiency. Reduce manual operational workload by at least 10% per year through automation. • Collaborate with the team to propose at least two technical initiatives per year that align with the team's roadmap. • Tackle high-impact engineering challenges, conduct post-mortems, and implement long-term fixes. Reduce repeat incidents by 10% annually through improved monitoring, alerting, and root cause analysis. • Champion engineering culture: Act as a role model for technical excellence, collaboration, and innovation. Lead at least one technical discussion, hackathon, or knowledge-sharing event per quarter to strengthen team engagement. Must Haves • Bachelor’s in STEM (or equivalent) with 5+ years of professional backend experience. • Professional proficiency in Golang and JVM-based languages (Java, Kotlin, or Scala). • Proven track record building distributed systems and real-time data pipelines (Kafka, Kubernetes, AWS) for IoT or high-volume telemetry. • Hands-on experience with communication protocols and interfacing with IoT devices. • Expertise in CI/CD (Jenkins/GitHub Actions) and Observability (Datadog/Grafana) to proactively monitor, debug, and optimize large-scale systems. • Experience conducting post-mortems and a willingness to participate in on-call rotations for critical incidents • Ability to document technical designs, contribute to technical roadmaps, and advocate for solutions to stakeholders • Ability to travel approximately twice a year. Highly Desired • Experience in Kotlin, Avro, and Java • Extensive experience with Flink, Kafka, and real-time streaming systems • Expertise in Hadoop Frameworks • Extensive experience in Geospatial and IOT systems Our budgeted range for this role is $137,000 USD - $185,000 USD Why Bird Matters Every time you hop on a Bird, you’re helping build a more livable city. We focus on four core pillars that reflect the impact of every ride: • Freedom: We're the bridge that connects you to every experience—simple, convenient, and stress-free. We give you the freedom to move without limits. • Exploration: We turn everyday trips into memorable experiences, sparking discovery and wonder as you connect with the world around you. • Community: Taking a Bird is an act of citizenship. We create a sense of belonging and unity, knowing that the richer our communities become, the richer our lives become. • Sustainability: Our electric vehicles reduce gas-powered car usage and lower carbon emissions. We enable responsible choices, creating tangible impact and driving progress toward a cleaner future. Culture at Bird We're an ambitious, smart, and open-minded team that is passionate about our mission. Each day is unlike the last, as we’re constantly moving forward, challenging each other, and working together to create the future of micro-mobility. Perks Up! We want you to succeed and thrive here, so we offer a few sweet perks: • Plenty of time off to relax and recharge, plus a wellness resource to help you wind down. • A work-from-home stipend. • An employer-paid healthcare package. • Of course, Bird ride credits to get you where you need to be! Bird is the world Bird stands for a culture of inclusion. We celebrate different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives —encouraging everyone to bring their authentic selves to work. We have a diverse environment that empowers our team to feel comfortable when they voice their opinions. For these reasons and more, Bird is a proud equal employment opportunity employer. We welcome everyone regardless of their race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or genetics, and we are dedicated to providing an inclusive, open, and diverse work environment. Sound like a place you’d like to work? Sweet. Let’s chat.