Senior Backend Software Engineer – Customer Studio Data Activation & AI Workflows (Remote) at brighthush

About brighthush

At brighthush, we’re redefining how businesses unlock the power of their data. Our mission is to transform raw warehouse information into actionable insights that drive growth, innovation, and customer delight. By building a next‑generation data activation platform, we empower companies to activate, sync, and experiment with their data without writing a single line of SQL. If you’re passionate about building scalable, high‑performance systems that make a tangible impact on real‑world products, brighthush is the place for you.

Why Join brighthush?

• Remote‑First Culture: Work from anywhere in the USA and collaborate with a distributed team of world‑class engineers, product managers, and data scientists.
• Ownership & Autonomy: Own entire feature lifecycles—from problem definition to production—and shape the future of our platform.
• Career Growth: Rapidly expanding product and engineering teams mean clear paths to leadership roles, mentorship opportunities, and continuous learning.
• Equity & Competitive Compensation: Earn meaningful equity through ISO options, with early exercise and a generous 10‑year post‑termination exercise window.
• Innovative Tech Stack: Work with cutting‑edge technologies such as cloud data warehouses, CDC, real‑time streaming, generative AI, and low‑latency APIs.
• Impactful Work: Build features that directly influence how customers segment audiences, sync data, run experiments, and make data‑driven decisions.

Key Responsibilities

As a Senior Backend Engineer on the Customer Studio team, you will be the driving force behind the core systems that power our no‑code data activation platform. Your day‑to‑day work will involve:

• Designing, building, and maintaining robust backend services that enable customers to activate warehouse data without writing SQL.
• Developing audience‑segmentation features, data‑sync orchestration, and downstream platform integrations.
• Leading projects from initial problem definition through architecture, implementation, deployment, and continuous improvement.
• Collaborating closely with product managers, UX designers, and fellow engineers to translate customer needs into reliable, scalable solutions.
• Optimizing warehouse‑powered products for speed, performance, and interactivity through query tuning, pre‑computed state, and other performance enhancements.
• Exploring warehouse‑specific optimizations to accelerate customer workflows and reduce latency.
• Ensuring system maintainability and reliability as data volumes and user traffic grow.
• Building tools that help customers evaluate and understand audience segments, including analytics dashboards and experimentation frameworks.
• Enabling real‑time audience computation and syncing as data warehouses adopt CDC and other streaming technologies.
• Designing low‑latency, high‑throughput data pipelines that support real‑time data processing.
• Integrating generative AI to streamline data activation workflows and reduce friction for end users.
• Identifying opportunities to improve user experience and reduce friction in data‑centric workflows.
• Making thoughtful architectural decisions that balance scalability, maintainability, reliability, and simplicity.
• Building core systems from scratch rather than relying solely on off‑the‑shelf components.
• Taking responsibility for the long‑term quality and extensibility of the systems you develop.
• Engaging with product specifications and contributing to solution design before implementation begins.
• Bringing strong customer and product thinking to technical decisions.
• Working directly with customers on complex scaling challenges when needed.
• Communicating clearly across engineering and product teams, and taking ownership of outcomes rather than merely completing tasks.

Essential Qualifications

• Senior‑level experience as a backend engineer with a deep understanding of distributed systems, architecture, scalability, maintainability, and reliability.
• Proven track record of owning complex projects from design through production, delivering high‑quality code on schedule.
• Strong product mindset: ability to empathize with customers, translate ambiguous problems into concrete technical solutions, and make sound trade‑offs.
• Experience building and evolving production backend systems that serve customer‑facing workflows.
• Hands‑on expertise with data warehouses (e.g., Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift), query optimization, and performance tuning.
• Familiarity with Reverse ETL, customer data platforms, and marketing technology ecosystems.
• Experience with real‑time data processing, CDC, and audience syncing.
• Knowledge of analytics, experimentation, and audience segmentation frameworks.
• Proficiency in building low‑latency APIs, caching layers, and high‑throughput distributed systems.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical trade‑offs to non‑technical stakeholders.
• Demonstrated growth mindset, intellectual curiosity, and a passion for continuous learning.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with generative AI and its application to customer‑facing product workflows.
• Background in building core backend infrastructure from scratch.
• Knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and container orchestration (Kubernetes, ECS).
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and observability best practices.
• Experience mentoring junior engineers and leading technical discussions.
• Understanding of data privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA) and secure data handling practices.

Skills & Competencies

• Backend Development: Go, Rust, Java, or Python.
• Distributed Systems: Microservices, event‑driven architecture, message queues.
• Data Engineering: SQL, ETL pipelines, data modeling, warehouse optimization.
• Performance Engineering: Profiling, caching, indexing, query optimization.
• AI & Machine Learning: Generative models, embeddings, recommendation engines.
• DevOps: Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD, monitoring (Prometheus, Grafana).
• Collaboration: Agile methodologies, cross‑functional teamwork, stakeholder management.
• Problem Solving: Analytical thinking, debugging complex distributed issues, root cause analysis.
• Communication: Clear documentation, concise status updates, effective presentations.

Career Growth & Learning Opportunities

At brighthush, we believe that the best engineers grow by tackling challenging problems and learning from diverse perspectives. As a Senior Backend Engineer, you will:

• Lead the design of flagship features that shape the future of data activation.
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to a culture of knowledge sharing.
• Participate in hackathons, tech talks, and internal workshops to stay ahead of industry trends.
• Collaborate with data scientists and product managers to experiment with cutting‑edge AI solutions.
• Take ownership of cross‑team initiatives, such as platform reliability, security, and scalability.
• Advance into technical leadership roles (Tech Lead, Principal Engineer) or product leadership (Product Manager, Head of Engineering).

Work Environment & Company Culture

brighthush fosters a culture of transparency, collaboration, and continuous improvement. Our remote‑first approach means:

• Flexible work hours that respect personal life and time zones.
• Regular virtual coffee chats, team‑building events, and hackathon weekends.
• Access to state‑of‑the‑art office spaces in San Francisco, New York City, and North Carolina for those who prefer in‑person collaboration.
• A commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, with employee resource groups and mentorship programs.
• Open‑source contributions and community engagement as part of our engineering ethos.

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive Base Salary: Market‑aligned compensation reflecting your experience and impact.
• Equity Package: Meaningful ISO options with early exercise and a 10‑year post‑termination exercise window.
• Health & Wellness: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans, plus a generous wellness stipend.
• Retirement: 401(k) plan with company match.
• Paid Time Off: Generous vacation policy, sick leave, and paid holidays.
• Professional Development: Budget for conferences, courses, certifications, and books.
• Remote‑First Perks: Home office stipend, high‑speed internet reimbursement, and ergonomic equipment.
• Community & Culture: Team retreats, volunteer days, and a vibrant internal community platform.

How to Apply

Ready to build the next generation of data activation tools and help businesses make smarter decisions? Apply to this role now and join the brighthush team where your ideas become reality.

Join brighthush – Where Data Meets Innovation

At brighthush, we’re not just building software; we’re creating a platform that empowers businesses to unlock the full potential of their data. If you thrive in a fast‑paced, high‑impact environment and are eager to solve complex, data‑centric challenges, we want to hear from you. Bring your expertise, curiosity, and passion for customer success, and let’s shape the future of data activation together.