Staff Software Engineer

2 x Senior and Staff Backend Engineer Roles | NYC | $180k-$240k + EquityI’m working with two fast-growing Series B technology companies in New York, both looking for genuinely strong Senior and Staff-level backend engineers.The businesses are very different, but the engineering bar is similar: complex backend systems, significant architecture ownership, strong judgement and engineers who still want to write production code.One is building the next generation of a travel and hospitality booking/distribution platform.The other is building an AI-powered healthcare claims platform processing complex data and workflows for US health plans.Both are serious hands-on Staff IC roles.Role 1 — Travel / Marketplace / Transactional Systems 🌎You’d be joining a growing travel technology business working with thousands of hotels and building out the infrastructure behind its booking and distribution platform.The work includes:Booking, reservation, payment and inventory systemsExternal APIs and major partner integrationsTransactional correctness, retries, idempotency and reconciliationComplex relational data modellingDistributed systems and production reliabilityOwning architecture across a major backend domainSetting patterns and technical direction for other engineersRemaining hands-on with production codeThey’re particularly interested in engineers from payments, marketplaces, commerce, travel, bookings, orders or other correctness-sensitive environments.Exact language isn’t important. Strong engineering judgement is.You do not need to already hold a Staff title if you’re clearly operating at that level.Role 2 — AI / Healthtech / Data Platforms 🤖The second company is building an AI-powered claims operations platform for the US healthcare market.This role is heavily focused on:Backend architectureLarge-scale data processingAPIs and distributed workflowsComplex relational data modelsAI / LLM-enabled systemsRAG, agentic workflows and modern AI infrastructureReliability, observability and auditabilityCross-team architecture and technical directionMentoring and influencing experienced engineersThey’re especially interested in engineers with backgrounds across high-growth technology, healthcare, fintech, data platforms or AI-heavy products.For this one, they’re looking for someone with 10+ years of engineering experience and genuine formal Staff-level experience.What both companies want ✅Deep backend engineering experienceStrong architecture and system-design judgementExperience owning difficult production systemsExcellent API and relational data-modelling fundamentalsEvidence that your technical decisions influence engineers beyond your own ticketsSomeone comfortable making decisions with incomplete informationStrong communication — you need to explain why you made a decision, what alternatives you considered and what trade-offs you acceptedHands-on engineers who still enjoy building rather than moving entirely into managementStrong use of modern AI-assisted engineering tools is increasingly valuableWhy these are interesting 👀These aren’t Staff roles where you sit above the engineering team drawing diagrams.Both companies want people who can:design it → make the decision → explain the trade-off → build it → get it into production → make the wider team better.📍 Manhattan, NYC🏢 3–4 days per week in office💰 $180k-$240k base + equity👨 💻 Staff-level individual contributor🚀 Series B / high-growth environments❌ No visa sponsorshipIf you’re a Staff, Principal, Lead or exceptionally strong Senior Backend Engineer looking for serious technical ownership without moving away from coding, drop me a message.jacob@refactorrecruitment.com