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Senior Software Engineer (Backend, Distributed Systems)

Remote, USA Full-time Posted 2026-06-17

Company Background

Censys’ mission is to be the one place to understand everything on the internet. Frustrated by the lack of trustworthy Internet intelligence, we set out to create the industry’s most comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date map of the Internet. Today, Censys delivers real-time Internet intelligence and actionable threat insights to global governments, over 50% of the Fortune 500, and leading threat intelligence providers worldwide.

Location: This position is remote within the United States.

Role Summary

We’re looking to hire a Senior Software Engineer (Backend, Distributed Systems) to build scalable services and APIs that process vast amounts of data and make them highly available, providing direct value to customers and other parts of our organization. Censys operates distributed infrastructure for Internet-wide scanning and you will help us continue our mission to build the highest quality datasets and APIs that lead to insights about the Internet at large.

At Censys, we believe in working iteratively, but we’re always thinking about the big picture. We’re expanding our data platform to enable future products and features to make the Internet an explainable map, providing additional, rich context, and showing complex relationships. We’re looking for someone with an ownership mindset, is curious, can provide mentorship, and has a collaborative spirit for our mission.

What You’ll Do

Build large scale, real-time streaming services and applications which leverage our massive datasets to power internal APIs and external applications.

  • Own the design and development phases of backend services and APIs that power the data platform that is our Internet Map.
  • Own planning activities to ensure we’re building the right things, by collaborating with engineering and product teams.
  • Leverage your experience of architecture and design to build various parts of the system, including components like: messaging queues, databases, ingestion pipelines, caching layers, and services that run in the cloud or on-prem.

Skills You Have

  • 5+ years of software engineering experience writing distributed systems (i.e. data ingestion pipelines, databases, services)
  • Experience with object-oriented programming - we use Go
  • Experience with at least one cloud provider, like: AWS, Azure, or GCP
  • Experience with message queue technologies, like: AWS Kinesis , Google Pub/Sub, Kafka, or other
  • Proficient with databases, like: BigTable, Cloud Spanner, HBase, Cassandra, or other
  • Proficient at building scalable, distributed systems
  • Know when and where to utilize AI
  • Ability to write understandable, testable code with an eye towards maintainability
  • Possess strong communication skills and can explain technical concepts to other engineers and product managers.

Things that make you stand out

  • Familiarity with gRPC or REST.
  • Familiarity with data serialization technologies, like: Protobuf, MessagePack, etc.
  • Experience building, deploying, and maintaining containerized services in a Kubernetes.
  • Knowledge of how DNS works and is used in practice
  • An understanding of how the Internet works; how machines and services communicate using defined protocols / standards.

For high cost of living areas (San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, and the New York City metro), the expected salary range for this position is $157,000 - $187,000 + bonus eligibility and equity.

For all other locations, the expected salary range for this position is $137,000 - $175,000 + bonus eligibility and equity.

In addition to our great compensation package, our benefits are effective on day one and include but are not limited to: 401k match, health, vision, dental, and more! Please see our careers page for more details.

Our roots are in Ann Arbor, Michigan and our innovation is fueled by the team’s global perspectives. For this role, we are open to remote employees across the continental US or Canada.

We value diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Censys is an equal opportunity employer.

California Privacy Rights Notice Pursuant to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), we are providing you with notice that we collect personal information from job applicants for business purposes, including evaluating your candidacy for employment, conducting interviews, and, if applicable, completing the hiring process. The categories of information we may collect include identifiers (such as name and contact information), professional or employment-related information (such as work history, education, and references), and other information you provide in your application. We do not sell or share your personal information. For more information on how we use and protect your personal information, and your rights under the CCPA, please refer to our Privacy Policy.

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