Principal Backend Engineer

Your Impact

The backend systems you build will determine whether millions of Americans can access college. You’ll architect the services that process $120 billion in federal aid each year — managing eligibility calculations, data integrations, and the APIs that power studentaid.gov.

The Technical Challenge

You’ll design and build the backend services that handle:

• Real-time data exchange with IRS, SSA, and other federal systems at scale
• Complex eligibility calculations processing millions of applications with thousands of edge cases
• APIs serving web, mobile, and partner integrations with sub-second response times
• Data consistency across distributed systems when families’ financial futures depend on it
• Database architecture that scales from zero to 10M applications in 6 months

What You’ll Do

This is a hands-on technical leadership role — you won’t code every day, but when it matters, you’ll dive in to unblock teams and de-risk critical changes. The specific tech stack doesn’t matter — we need engineers who can work with and improve whatever technology serves the mission. Tasks may include:

• Design and build APIs and microservices that replace decades-old legacy systems
• Set technical standards for backend architecture and integration patterns
• Make architectural decisions about service boundaries and data flow
• Debug complex production issues across distributed systems
• Review PRs across multiple codebases, spotting failure modes and simplifying changes
• Unblock teams by writing code when the mission demands it

Who Succeeds Here

We’re looking for engineers who’ve built at scale in complex environments — typically Staff+ at a strong engineering organization, with experience in most of the following:

• Built or operated systems serving millions of users in production
• Led cross-team technical initiatives over multiple quarters
• Migrated or decomposed legacy systems while keeping critical workflows available
• Stayed hands-on with code — you can still read a diff, trace a request, and ship a fix
• Prioritized outcomes over process — you know when to push back on bureaucracy that slows delivery without adding value

Reality Check

Compensation: This is a GS-15 technical position — the highest rung on the standard government pay scale and roughly equivalent to a Principal Engineer at a top technology company. Full federal benefits included.

The Environment: You’ll face legacy systems, federal compliance, and change-resistant stakeholders. However, you own your technical decisions — shaping architecture, influencing requirements, and driving change through consensus rather than permission.

The Impact: Your code will impact more families than most consumer apps ever reach at one of the most consequential financial moments of their lives. Once you’re in, you have technical autonomy rarely seen in government.

Interview Process

Our interview process is fully remote, consisting of 3-5 conversations that assess work experience, fit, and technical skills.