Back-End Engineer Jobs in California
Back-End Engineer jobs in California are concentrated in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and San Diego, where companies like Google, Meta, and Salesforce maintain major engineering operations and hire back-end engineers across experience levels from new grad to staff engineer. Demand is strongest for engineers with deep expertise in distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and API design, reflecting the scale and architecture needs of California's technology industry. Competition is high, but the market remains among the most active in the country for this role. Find a role that fits below and apply directly.
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At Affirm, we exist for the moments that matter—giving people a clear, predictable way to pay over time, with no hidden fees, no surprises, and no tradeoffs on what matters most.
Our team sits within Developer Productivity, whose mission is to make software development at Affirm simpler and faster across the company. The broader org owns much of the path between a developer's laptop and production, including developer environments, CI/CD pipelines, test automation, dependency management, and release engineering, all in service of helping engineers ship code quickly, safely, and with confidence.
The Continuous Delivery team's charter is centered on enabling engineering teams to release independently through strong automation, standard patterns, predictable rollouts, resilient recovery mechanisms, and less manual toil. This role is uniquely positioned to help solve one of Affirm's most important engineering challenges: scaling developer productivity in an era where the software development lifecycle is increasingly AI-enhanced. The team builds and improves the platforms, workflows, and guardrails that help engineers move from idea to production faster, with better safety, consistency, and developer experience.
What You'll Do
- With the support of your team, you will work on tasks that contribute to the team's projects and goals.
- You will work collaboratively and proactively with your team and stakeholders, bringing them along for your work and helping to create visibility and dialog regarding the risks and trade-offs related to your work.
- You will strike the right balance of speed and quality in your work, ensuring that we hit our business goals while protecting our systems from downtime.
- You will contribute to a sense of community on your team by engaging in growth and development activities.
What We Look For
- You have previous work or internship experience designing, developing and launching backend systems at scale and are experienced using one of Python or Kotlin.
- You are familiar with the building blocks of distributed systems, and the technologies like AWS, MySQL and Kubernetes.
- You have mastered taking a simple problem or business scenario into a solution that interacts with multiple software components, and executing on it by writing clear, easily understood, well tested and extensible code.
- You are comfortable navigating a large code base, debugging others' code, and providing feedback to other engineers through code reviews.
- Your experience demonstrates that you take ownership of your growth, proactively seeking feedback from your team, your manager, and your stakeholders.
- You have strong verbal and written communication skills that support effective collaboration with our global engineering team.
- This position requires either equivalent practical experience or a Bachelor's degree in a related field.
Base Pay Grade - J
Equity Grade - 5
Employees new to Affirm typically come in at the start of the pay range. Affirm focuses on providing a simple and transparent pay structure which is based on a variety of factors, including location, experience and job-related skills.
Base pay is part of a total compensation package that may include equity rewards, monthly stipends for health, wellness and tech spending, and benefits (including 100% subsidized medical coverage, dental and vision for you and your dependents.)
USA base pay range (CA, WA, NY, NJ, CT) per year: $130,000 - $180,000
USA base pay range (all other U.S. states) per year: $115,000 - $165,000
#LI-Remote
Remote-first with flexibility built in
Affirm is proud to be a remote-first company. Most roles can be done from almost anywhere within the country of employment. Some positions may occasionally require in-person work at an Affirm office, and a few are office-based due to the nature of the work. All new hires will be invited to attend an in-person onboarding experience.
Benefits designed for you
Our benefits reflect our commitment to care, transparency, and flexibility. Here are a few highlights:
- Health coverage at no cost: We cover 100% of premiums for employees and their dependents.
- Spending stipends: Monthly stipends support your tech setup, and the ability to choose health and wellness options that are right for you.
- Time off to recharge: Flexible time off and generous holiday calendars help you rest when you need to.
- Own a piece of what you build: Our employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) lets you buy Affirm stock at a discount.
We're committed to providing an inclusive interview process, including accommodations for candidates with disabilities. If you need support, we're happy to help.
For positions based in San Francisco or Los Angeles: Affirm considers qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, as required by law.
By clicking "Submit Application," you acknowledge that you have read Affirm's Global Candidate Privacy Notice and consent to the use of your personal information as described.
At Affirm, we exist for the moments that matter—giving people a clear, predictable way to pay over time, with no hidden fees, no surprises, and no tradeoffs on what matters most.
Our team sits within Developer Productivity, whose mission is to make software development at Affirm simpler and faster across the company. The broader org owns much of the path between a developer's laptop and production, including developer environments, CI/CD pipelines, test automation, dependency management, and release engineering, all in service of helping engineers ship code quickly, safely, and with confidence.
The Continuous Delivery team's charter is centered on enabling engineering teams to release independently through strong automation, standard patterns, predictable rollouts, resilient recovery mechanisms, and less manual toil. This role is uniquely positioned to help solve one of Affirm's most important engineering challenges: scaling developer productivity in an era where the software development lifecycle is increasingly AI-enhanced. The team builds and improves the platforms, workflows, and guardrails that help engineers move from idea to production faster, with better safety, consistency, and developer experience.
What You'll Do
- With the support of your team, you will work on tasks that contribute to the team's projects and goals.
- You will work collaboratively and proactively with your team and stakeholders, bringing them along for your work and helping to create visibility and dialog regarding the risks and trade-offs related to your work.
- You will strike the right balance of speed and quality in your work, ensuring that we hit our business goals while protecting our systems from downtime.
- You will contribute to a sense of community on your team by engaging in growth and development activities.
What We Look For
- You have previous work or internship experience designing, developing and launching backend systems at scale and are experienced using one of Python or Kotlin.
- You are familiar with the building blocks of distributed systems, and the technologies like AWS, MySQL and Kubernetes.
- You have mastered taking a simple problem or business scenario into a solution that interacts with multiple software components, and executing on it by writing clear, easily understood, well tested and extensible code.
- You are comfortable navigating a large code base, debugging others' code, and providing feedback to other engineers through code reviews.
- Your experience demonstrates that you take ownership of your growth, proactively seeking feedback from your team, your manager, and your stakeholders.
- You have strong verbal and written communication skills that support effective collaboration with our global engineering team.
- This position requires either equivalent practical experience or a Bachelor's degree in a related field.
Base Pay Grade - J
Equity Grade - 5
Employees new to Affirm typically come in at the start of the pay range. Affirm focuses on providing a simple and transparent pay structure which is based on a variety of factors, including location, experience and job-related skills.
Base pay is part of a total compensation package that may include equity rewards, monthly stipends for health, wellness and tech spending, and benefits (including 100% subsidized medical coverage, dental and vision for you and your dependents.)
USA base pay range (CA, WA, NY, NJ, CT) per year: $130,000 - $180,000
USA base pay range (all other U.S. states) per year: $115,000 - $165,000
#LI-Remote
Remote-first with flexibility built in
Affirm is proud to be a remote-first company. Most roles can be done from almost anywhere within the country of employment. Some positions may occasionally require in-person work at an Affirm office, and a few are office-based due to the nature of the work. All new hires will be invited to attend an in-person onboarding experience.
Benefits designed for you
Our benefits reflect our commitment to care, transparency, and flexibility. Here are a few highlights:
- Health coverage at no cost: We cover 100% of premiums for employees and their dependents.
- Spending stipends: Monthly stipends support your tech setup, and the ability to choose health and wellness options that are right for you.
- Time off to recharge: Flexible time off and generous holiday calendars help you rest when you need to.
- Own a piece of what you build: Our employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) lets you buy Affirm stock at a discount.
We're committed to providing an inclusive interview process, including accommodations for candidates with disabilities. If you need support, we're happy to help.
For positions based in San Francisco or Los Angeles: Affirm considers qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, as required by law.
By clicking "Submit Application," you acknowledge that you have read Affirm's Global Candidate Privacy Notice and consent to the use of your personal information as described.
See All 403+ Back-End Engineer Jobs in California
Find roles in California that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find Back-End Engineer JobsBack-End Engineer Jobs by City in California
Where California roles are concentrated, by current openings.
Back-End Engineer Job Market in California
A snapshot from current California openings, updated as new roles post.
Who's Hiring
- TikTok29
- Rippling20
- ALTRUIST16
- Apple12
- Affirm10
Top Industries Hiring
- Technology & Software73
- Banking & Financial Services9
- Investment & Asset Management7
- Consulting & Professional Services7
- Fintech5
What California Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in Back-End engineer jobs across California.
- Proficiency in one or more back-end languages such as Python, Java, or Go
- Experience designing and maintaining RESTful or GraphQL APIs at scale
- Hands-on work with cloud platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure
- Familiarity with relational and non-relational databases including PostgreSQL and Redis
- Understanding of distributed systems, microservices architecture, and containerization tools
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, or a related technical field
Back-End Engineer Jobs in California: Frequently Asked Questions
How do you become a back-end engineer in California?
Back-end engineering has no state-issued license in California, so the path runs through education and demonstrated technical skill. Most California employers expect a bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, or a closely related field, though strong candidates with bootcamp credentials and a portfolio of shipped projects are hired at companies across the state. Building experience with cloud infrastructure and distributed systems, which are central to California's largest engineering teams, strengthens any application significantly.
Which companies hire back-end engineers in California?
Employers hiring back-end engineers in California right now include TikTok, Rippling, and ALTRUIST, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. California's concentration of enterprise software, cloud, and consumer technology companies means back-end roles appear across a wide range of team sizes, from large platform organizations to growth-stage product companies headquartered in the Bay Area and Los Angeles.
Which California cities have the most back-end engineer jobs?
San Francisco, San Jose, and Sunnyvale have the most back-end engineer openings in California. The Bay Area leads because it is home to the headquarters and largest engineering campuses of major cloud and enterprise technology companies, while Los Angeles draws volume from its growing base of media technology, fintech, and e-commerce employers, and San Diego contributes through its defense technology and biotech software sectors.
Are there remote back-end engineer jobs in California?
Yes, and more than most fields. About 65% of back-end engineer openings tied to California are remote or hybrid as of November 2026, reflecting how well the work transfers to distributed environments. Roles focused on API development, data pipeline engineering, and platform infrastructure tend to appear most often as fully remote positions, particularly at California-based companies with established distributed engineering teams.
How can I get hired as a back-end engineer in California with little or no experience?
The most realistic entry path is a new-grad or associate software engineer role at a California technology company, where structured onboarding programs exist at employers including large Bay Area platform companies and mid-size product firms. Candidates who build a portfolio of projects demonstrating API design and database work, contribute to open-source repositories, or complete an internship at a California employer gain a clear edge. Adjacent roles such as QA engineer, data analyst, or DevOps associate at California companies frequently open the door to back-end engineering positions within one to two years.
Where can I find and apply to back-end engineer jobs in California?
You can find and apply to back-end engineer jobs in California on Migrate Mate, which lists current openings across the state. Search the listings for roles that match your experience and location preference, then apply directly to the ones that fit.
See All 403+ Back-End Engineer Jobs in California
Find roles in California that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
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