Lead Backend Engineer (Modeling & Simulation)

The posting, as Code Metal wrote it

ABOUT CODE METAL

Code Metal is the leader in automated software engineering you can trust. As AI writes more of the world's code, the bottleneck in software has shifted from writing code to verifying it works, and AI cannot verify its own work with certainty. Code Metal takes a fundamentally different approach: constrain AI to what it does reliably, verify every step independently of the model using formal methods, and keep engineers in the loop on the decisions that matter. The result isn't code that probably works — it's code that is provably correct, with auditable proof. Customers including the U.S. Air Force, L3Harris, RTX, and Toshiba use Code Metal to modernize legacy code, optimize performance on real hardware, and move prototypes to production, fast. Founded in 2023 with offices in Boston and San Francisco, Code Metal is funded by Accel, Salesforce Ventures, B Capital, Smith Point Capital, J2 Ventures, Shield Capital, Overmatch, RTX, and others.
Learn more at codemetal.ai http://codemetal.ai.

ABOUT THE ROLE

Our Modeling & Simulation team is building the next-generation wargaming and decision-support platform that helps the DoW make multi-billion-dollar force-design decisions before those decisions are made in the real world. The team spans simulation and physics, backend and data systems, frontend and geospatial visualization, and AI systems, working together to turn operational questions into extensible, mission- and campaign-level simulations that government users can trust.

In this role, you'll lead the backend and data engineering team that builds the Python services, APIs, and data systems powering our wargaming and decision-support platform. You'll balance people leadership with hands-on technical ownership — bringing Principal-level backend engineering judgment to the team's architecture and code, staying closely engaged in design and code review, and personally stepping in on the hardest technical problems, while growing a team of backend and data engineers.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Lead and grow a high-performing backend and data engineering team while remaining hands-on in the codebase.
• Define the technical direction for backend services, APIs, data systems, and integrations across simulation, AI, frontend, and platform teams.
• Design, build, and operate secure, reliable Python services, APIs, workers, and integration layers.
• Translate product, research, and domain requirements into clear architectures, technical plans, and incrementally deliverable work.
• Establish strong engineering standards for API design, service boundaries, testing, observability, error handling, migrations, security, and code review.
• Build enterprise-grade software for cloud, private-cloud, customer-managed, on-premises, and disconnected environments.
• Partner with platform and data engineering leaders to ensure systems are deployable, observable, performant, and maintainable.
• Lead design reviews, RFCs, technical groomin

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, or ML pipeline integration.

• Experience with cloud-based distributed systems (AWS, GCP, Azure) and Docker/containerized development.
• Experience designing rule-driven systems, policy engines, or configuration-driven business logic.
• Experience managing managers, or growing engineers into technical-lead roles.
• Active U.S. security clearance (Secret, Top Secret, or SCI/SAP).
• Experience with observability practices and tooling, including structured logging, metrics, tracing, health checks, alerting, and service dashboards.
• Experience with authentication, authorization, role-based access control, audit logging, and secure service-to-service communication.
• Experience designing systems that integrate with external services, legacy systems, third-party APIs, simulators, data pipelines, or customer-owned infrastructure.
• Experience with geospatial systems, simulation systems, planning systems, logistics systems, or other complex operational domains.
• Experience helping teams establish engineering practices without adding unnecessary process or slowing delivery.

BENEFITS

• Pay depends on experience, but we strive to be at the upper end of the salary range
• Health care plan with 100% premium coverage, including medical, dental, and vision
• 401k with 5% matching
• Paid Time Off (uncapped vacation, plus sick and public holidays)
• Flexible hybrid or remote work arrangement
• Relocation assistance for qualifying employees

Wage Transparency - The salary range for this role is not a guarantee of compensation or salary, as the final offer amount may vary based on factors including, but not limited to, individual proficiency, skills, experience, and location.

We are an equal opportunity employer. US Citizenship may be required for certain project assignments involving security clearance.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.