Senior Software Engineer | Backend

About Formal

Formal is building a network security platform for the AI era. As agents gain access to sensitive data and production systems, organizations need control over the actions they take and the data they receive. We enforce those controls directly in the network path, with a shared policy layer for humans and agents across databases, infrastructure, APIs, and AI tools.

We are trusted by leading companies such as Cursor , Decagon , Notion , and more to solve problems across data security and compliance, data quality management, and infrastructure access.

Formal is backed by top-tiers VCs including Thrive Capital and Y Combinator with angel investors that include executives and founders from Datadog, Clickhouse, Plaid, and Vanta.

About the Role

Formal is on a mission to build the best engineering team and we're looking for people who want to make outsized impact on shaping the product and building the company.

Our ideal candidate has a deep understanding of building scalable backend systems, a strong sense of ownership, and enjoys owning projects from inception to scaling it in production.

Our tech stack currently involves Golang, Rust, Temporal, Datastore protocols (Postgres, S3, Kafka, MySQL, Snowflake, Redshift, SSH), and AWS

What you'll do

Design and develop a high performance data platform that can handle large volumes of data in real-time

Build new product features from start to finish through to research, implementation, and maintenance

Help improve performance and reliability of net new and existing features

Lead any initiative you think may have a strong impact on Formal

Design scalable services as Formal grows and processes more traffic

What You Need

Software development experience building data-intensive software platforms

You value code simplicity and performance

Strong knowledge of Golang and experience with its ecosystem

Experience with streaming data processing frameworks such as Apache Kafka and Google Pub/Sub

Experience debugging and optimizing complex production systems

Experience working in DBs, OS, networking, or other systems-level environments

Experience with containerization technologies (Docker, ECS, or Kubernetes) and infrastructure as a code technologies (Terraform)

Excellent communication skills and the ability to work well within a team

You are a strong problem solver and have solid production debugging skills

Nice-to-Haves

You have worked in a fast, high-growth startup environment before

You have experience using tools like Temporal and Render

You have extensive knowledge of datastore protocols (Postgres, S3, Kafka)

Familiarity with cloud computing platforms, such as Azure or GCP

Compensation

This role offers cash compensation and a stock options grant.

The positioning of offers within a certain range depends on various factors, including: candidate experience, qualifications, skills, and business requirements.

Benefits (for U.S.-based full-time employees)

100% medical, dental & vision insurance coverage for you

Partially covered for your dependents

Flexible PTO