Staff Software Engineer-Backend
Cameo
$175,000 - $215,000 / year
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Description
Staff Software Engineer, Backend
At Cameo, we make impossible connections possible. Our platform allows fans to get personalized messages from their favorite comedians, actors, athletes, and more.... not gonna lie, it’s pretty magical. And now we’re looking for passionate, hardworking humans to help take Cameo to the next level.
🚀 Our #Fameo means everything to us. Join a stellar team of smart, curious, and driven individuals, and experience working at a globally known consumer startup.
📈 Best in class. We’ve been named one of LinkedIn’s Top 50 Startups to Work For, voted one of America’s Best Startup Employers by Forbes, and the #1 Most Innovative Social Media Company by Fast Company.
💰Get all good stuff. Health insurance, 401(K), Fun work environment at our Downtown Chicago Headquarters, and opportunities to meet Cameo Talent!
Come to work every day knowing your efforts will have a material impact, shaping the direction of the next outstanding tech company!
About the role:
You will set the technical direction for the backend platform that connects fans and talent to create the perfect video shoutout; and you'll make it fast, reliable, and ready for the next order of magnitude of scale. This is a hands-on leadership role: you'll architect the core services behind our website and mobile app, own the hardest distributed-systems and data problems, and raise the engineering bar for the teams around you.
As a staff backend engineer, you'll go deep on our backend (node.js) and data layer (MongoDB), design the event-driven and API architecture that ties everything together, and partner closely with product, data, and platform teams. You'll also help define how we build with AI; from using agentic coding tools to move faster, to designing the AI-powered systems that make Cameo better. You won't just ship features; you'll define how we build, where we invest, and how we stay reliable as we grow.
What you bring to the table:
- 10+ years of professional backend engineering experience, with deep expertise in node.js (express, async patterns, etc.)
- A track record of designing and operating distributed systems serving millions of users in production
- Expert-level data modeling with NoSQL (Mongo), and good judgment on when relational or other stores fit better
- Experience designing event-driven and streaming architectures (Kafka/Confluent, queues, pub/sub)
- You've built and owned high-throughput, low-latency REST (and/or async) APIs as long-lived platforms, not one-offs
- Security-minded across authn/authz, data protection, and supply-chain risk
- Strong cloud-native chops on AWS
- AI fluency: you use agentic coding tools (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.) to multiply your output, and you help set the standards for how the team builds with AI; including designing agentic and AI-powered systems into the platform
- You set technical direction across teams and mentor engineers, leading through influence rather than authority
- You have a strong product sense and connect technical decisions to real user and business impact
- You're a doer who thrives in ambiguity and brings others along with you
- You love building and scaling, and you raise the bar for everyone around you
Cameo is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive and welcoming environment for every person who walks through our doors. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need. Cameo celebrates and embraces diversity.
The salary range for this position is $175,000 to $215,000 with opportunities for additional compensation based on performance. Cameo determines salary ranges by role and level with ranges for US roles typically based on our home market of Chicago. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations. Within that range, individual pay is determined by job-related skills, experience, and relevant education and training. Posted salary ranges reflect base salary only, exclusive of equity, commissions, and other compensation and benefits.
Please consult the Notice to California Residents contained in Cameo's Privacy Policy available at https://www.cameo.com/privacy for information regarding your rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act if you are a California resident.
About this role
Cameo's backend platform powers direct connections between millions of fans and talent, and this staff-level role puts you in charge of the technical strategy that keeps it running reliably at scale. You'll architect the core services behind the website and mobile app, own the distributed systems and data challenges that matter most, and set the engineering standards for teams around you. This is hands-on leadership: you'll design event-driven and API architecture, mentor engineers through influence, and help define how the organization builds with AI—from agentic coding tools to AI-powered systems embedded in the platform itself.
The role demands 10+ years of backend engineering with deep Node.js expertise and a proven track record operating distributed systems for millions of users. You'll need expert-level data modeling with MongoDB, strong experience with event-driven architectures like Kafka, and the ability to design high-throughput, low-latency APIs as long-lived platforms. Security mindedness, cloud-native AWS skills, and fluency with modern AI tools are table stakes. Beyond technical depth, you'll need strong product sense, the ability to thrive in ambiguity, and genuine skill at raising the bar for those around you.
Based in Minneapolis with an in-office requirement, this position offers $175,000 to $215,000 plus performance-based compensation, health insurance, 401(k), and the chance to work directly with Cameo talent. It's a role for someone ready to shape not just what gets built, but how an organization scales.
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Pay for this role
$175,000 to $215,000 per year
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