Staff Backend Engineer
"What You'll Be Doing"
About This Role
When major news events happen — elections, Fed decisions, championship games — huge volumes of trades, price updates, and market resolutions flow through Polymarket's backend, and these systems must remain fast and correct. Polymarket is hiring Staff Backend Engineers to own and shape these systems as the platform scales globally.
What You'll Be Doing
Own the design, build, and operation of critical backend systems end to end, from architecture through production
Set technical direction within your area and influence architecture across teams, with attention to scale, failure modes, and graceful degradation
Tackle open-ended, difficult technical problems and translate them into clear, shippable plans
Build services and APIs, mainly in Go, that are fast, correct, and easy for other teams to build on
Own production reliability, including performance profiling and tuning, leading incident response, and driving fixes that prevent recurring issues
Maintain a high bar for correctness in systems where bugs have real financial consequences
Partner with Product, Infrastructure, Data, and other business stakeholders to turn ambiguous requirements into working systems
Mentor engineers, lead design reviews, and help establish engineering standards as the team grows
What We're Looking For
7+ years of professional backend engineering experience, with strong proficiency in Go, Python, or Java (Go preferred)
Deep knowledge of distributed systems, concurrency, data structures, and algorithms
A track record of designing, shipping, and operating high-scale distributed systems in production
A strong focus on correctness and reliability, especially where failures carry financial consequences
Proven technical leadership, including setting direction for systems spanning multiple teams and helping other engineers grow
Ability to work independently, handle ambiguity, and drive work forward without waiting for direction
Sound judgment on tradeoffs between speed, quality, and long-term maintainability
Bonus Points
Deep experience in trading or exchange systems, consumer product platforms at scale, risk/fraud/compliance engineering, or derivatives and risk engines
Background in latency-critical or financial domains such as HFT, fintech, payments, crypto, or gaming
Production experience with streaming platforms (Kafka, Pulsar) and RPC frameworks (gRPC/Connect, Protobuf)
Experience running services on AWS or GCP with containers and modern deployment tooling
Why Join Us
Competitive salary and equity
Unlimited PTO
Health, vision, and dental coverage
401(k) match
Full hardware setup, including a new MacBook Pro, large display, and accessories
Base salary range of $250,000 to $400,000 annually, plus equity and benefits
About Polymarket
Polymarket is at the forefront of the decentralized information and prediction market revolution, leveraging cutting-edge blockchain technology to create a more transparent and efficient way to bet on real-world events. We're building a platform where users can trade on their beliefs about everything from politics to pop culture, fostering a global community driven by data and conviction. Our mission is to democratize access to information and enable price discovery in a trustless environment, fundamentally reshaping how people engage with and understand the world. Our team thrives on innovation, intellectual curiosity, and a deep-seated belief in the power of Web3 principles. We champion a culture of open collaboration, radical transparency, and continuous learning, encouraging every team member to contribute their unique perspective to solve complex challenges. We are a group of passionate builders, designers, and strategists united by a vision for a decentralized future, where markets are fair, accessible, and censorship-resistant. At Polymarket, your work directly impacts the evolution of decentralized finance and information. If you're eager to make a significant impact in the nascent but rapidly expanding blockchain space, Polymarket offers an unparalleled opportunity. Join us to contribute to a platform that empowers users, challenges traditional financial systems, and puts the power of prediction back into the hands of the people. We're looking for individuals who are not just skilled but are also true believers in the potential of crypto to create a more informed and equitable world. Come build the future with Polymarket.
Ready to Apply?
To submit your application for this position, please visit Polymarket's official website and follow their application process.