Backend Engineer Jobs in Virginia
Backend Engineer jobs in Virginia are in strong demand across defense contracting, federal IT services, cloud computing, and cybersecurity, with openings at every level from junior to principal engineer. Northern Virginia, Richmond, and the Hampton Roads area account for most of the hiring, anchored by employers such as Booz Allen Hamilton, Leidos, and Amazon Web Services, which maintains a major presence around its headquarters campus in Arlington. The most sought-after specializations include distributed systems, cloud-native API development, and microservices architecture with a focus on AWS or Azure. Find a role that fits below and apply directly.
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The Senior Backend Engineer designs, builds, and maintains scalable, secure, and reliable backend systems and services that power learning solutions for Pansophic Learning. This role owns the technical design and delivery of backend services, APIs, and integrations, with a focus on performance, scalability, maintainability, and operational excellence. The Senior Backend Engineer provides technical guidance, contributes to architecture decisions, and drives continuous improvements in engineering practices.
This role reports directly to the Software Development Manager and works closely with Software Engineers, QA/Test Engineers, product teams, and other cross-functional partners. The ideal candidate is proactive, collaborative, and comfortable mentoring engineers, leading technical discussions, and balancing near-term delivery with long-term system quality.
This position will work 4 days per week in office in Tysons Corner, VA.
Responsibilities:
- Design, develop, and maintain scalable, secure, and highly available backend services and APIs for K-12 learning environments
- Build and manage RESTful APIs using Node.js and Express
- Design and optimize relational and NoSQL data models, database queries, and indexing strategies
- Develop and maintain backend systems on Amazon Web Services (AWS), applying cloud architecture and security best practices
- Improve system performance, scalability, reliability, fault tolerance, and observability
- Apply code quality standards, peer code reviews, Git version control, and automated testing practices
- Troubleshoot production issues using logs, metrics, and monitoring, and implementing durable fixes
- Collaborate with front-end developers, QA engineers, and product teams to deliver end-to-end solutions
- Lead technical design discussions, contribute to architecture decisions, and address technical debt
- Improve deployment automation, infrastructure as code, and CI/CD workflows; mentor junior and mid-level engineers
Core Competencies:
- 5+ years of hands-on backend development experience with Node.js and Express
- Advanced proficiency in JavaScript and TypeScript
- Strong PostgreSQL and SQL skills, including schema design, indexing, and query optimization
- Strong MongoDB skills, including data modeling and performance optimization
- Experience with AWS services such as Lambda, ECS, DynamoDB, API Gateway, and CloudWatch
- Familiarity with AWS CDK or comparable infrastructure-as-code tools; experience with unit and integration testing
Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field (or equivalent experience)
- 8+ years of overall professional software development experience, including substantial backend engineering experience
- Strong experience designing, building, and consuming RESTful APIs
- Deep understanding of backend architecture, distributed systems, scalability, and fault tolerance
- Experience with message queues, asynchronous processing, event-driven architecture, and backend design patterns
- Experience with Git, code reviews, and modern CI/CD practices
- Experience working in Unix/Linux environments
- Strong problem-solving skills and ability to debug complex production systems
- Excellent communication, cross-functional collaboration, and technical mentoring skills
- Ability to pass federal and state criminal background checks (FBI/BCI)
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience with Docker, Docker Compose, and container orchestration technologies such as Kubernetes
- Experience building microservices and high-availability distributed systems
- Experience with Redis or other caching technologies and application observability tools
- Experience implementing authentication, authorization, and API security best practices
- Ability to work independently, organize competing priorities, and collaborate effectively across teams
Additional Information:
Pansophic Learning is committed to building high-quality, scalable backend systems that support innovative education solutions. This role is ideal for an experienced backend engineer who thrives in a collaborative environment and is passionate about building robust, efficient systems.
EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
It is our policy to abide by all federal, state and local laws prohibiting employment discrimination based solely on a person's race, color, religious creed, sex, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, pregnancy, childbirth, physical disability, mental and/or intellectual disability, age, military status, veteran status (including protected veterans), marital status, registered domestic partner or civil union status, familial status, gender (including sex stereotyping and gender identity or expression), medical condition, genetic information, sexual orientation, or any other protected status except where a reasonable, bona fide occupational qualification exists.
The Senior Backend Engineer designs, builds, and maintains scalable, secure, and reliable backend systems and services that power learning solutions for Pansophic Learning. This role owns the technical design and delivery of backend services, APIs, and integrations, with a focus on performance, scalability, maintainability, and operational excellence. The Senior Backend Engineer provides technical guidance, contributes to architecture decisions, and drives continuous improvements in engineering practices.
This role reports directly to the Software Development Manager and works closely with Software Engineers, QA/Test Engineers, product teams, and other cross-functional partners. The ideal candidate is proactive, collaborative, and comfortable mentoring engineers, leading technical discussions, and balancing near-term delivery with long-term system quality.
This position will work 4 days per week in office in Tysons Corner, VA.
Responsibilities:
- Design, develop, and maintain scalable, secure, and highly available backend services and APIs for K-12 learning environments
- Build and manage RESTful APIs using Node.js and Express
- Design and optimize relational and NoSQL data models, database queries, and indexing strategies
- Develop and maintain backend systems on Amazon Web Services (AWS), applying cloud architecture and security best practices
- Improve system performance, scalability, reliability, fault tolerance, and observability
- Apply code quality standards, peer code reviews, Git version control, and automated testing practices
- Troubleshoot production issues using logs, metrics, and monitoring, and implementing durable fixes
- Collaborate with front-end developers, QA engineers, and product teams to deliver end-to-end solutions
- Lead technical design discussions, contribute to architecture decisions, and address technical debt
- Improve deployment automation, infrastructure as code, and CI/CD workflows; mentor junior and mid-level engineers
Core Competencies:
- 5+ years of hands-on backend development experience with Node.js and Express
- Advanced proficiency in JavaScript and TypeScript
- Strong PostgreSQL and SQL skills, including schema design, indexing, and query optimization
- Strong MongoDB skills, including data modeling and performance optimization
- Experience with AWS services such as Lambda, ECS, DynamoDB, API Gateway, and CloudWatch
- Familiarity with AWS CDK or comparable infrastructure-as-code tools; experience with unit and integration testing
Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field (or equivalent experience)
- 8+ years of overall professional software development experience, including substantial backend engineering experience
- Strong experience designing, building, and consuming RESTful APIs
- Deep understanding of backend architecture, distributed systems, scalability, and fault tolerance
- Experience with message queues, asynchronous processing, event-driven architecture, and backend design patterns
- Experience with Git, code reviews, and modern CI/CD practices
- Experience working in Unix/Linux environments
- Strong problem-solving skills and ability to debug complex production systems
- Excellent communication, cross-functional collaboration, and technical mentoring skills
- Ability to pass federal and state criminal background checks (FBI/BCI)
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience with Docker, Docker Compose, and container orchestration technologies such as Kubernetes
- Experience building microservices and high-availability distributed systems
- Experience with Redis or other caching technologies and application observability tools
- Experience implementing authentication, authorization, and API security best practices
- Ability to work independently, organize competing priorities, and collaborate effectively across teams
Additional Information:
Pansophic Learning is committed to building high-quality, scalable backend systems that support innovative education solutions. This role is ideal for an experienced backend engineer who thrives in a collaborative environment and is passionate about building robust, efficient systems.
EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
It is our policy to abide by all federal, state and local laws prohibiting employment discrimination based solely on a person's race, color, religious creed, sex, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, pregnancy, childbirth, physical disability, mental and/or intellectual disability, age, military status, veteran status (including protected veterans), marital status, registered domestic partner or civil union status, familial status, gender (including sex stereotyping and gender identity or expression), medical condition, genetic information, sexual orientation, or any other protected status except where a reasonable, bona fide occupational qualification exists.
See All 27 Backend Engineer Jobs in Virginia
Find roles in Virginia that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find Backend Engineer JobsBackend Engineer Jobs by City in Virginia
Where Virginia roles are concentrated, by current openings.
Backend Engineer Job Market in Virginia
A snapshot from current Virginia openings, updated as new roles post.
Who's Hiring
What Virginia Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in backend engineer jobs across Virginia.
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, or a closely related technical field
- Proficiency in one or more backend languages such as Java, Python, Go, or Node.js
- Experience designing and maintaining RESTful APIs and microservices architectures
- Familiarity with cloud platforms, primarily AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud
- Active or eligible security clearance preferred for defense and federal contracting roles in Virginia
- Experience with relational and NoSQL databases including PostgreSQL, MySQL, or MongoDB
Backend Engineer Jobs in Virginia: Frequently Asked Questions
How do you become a backend engineer in Virginia?
Backend engineering in Virginia has no state-issued license, so entry is credential and skill-driven. Most Virginia employers expect at minimum a bachelor's degree in computer science or software engineering, though some accept equivalent bootcamp or self-taught experience paired with a strong portfolio. Candidates targeting defense or federal contracting roles common in Northern Virginia should also pursue or maintain a security clearance, which significantly broadens the field of available employers.
How much do backend engineers make in Virginia?
Backend engineers in Virginia earn a median of about $136,460 a year, based on May 2025 Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data, ranging from around $83,350 for the lowest 10% to over $211,930 for the top 10%. Pay rises with experience, specialty, and employer.
Which companies hire backend engineers in Virginia?
Employers hiring backend engineers in Virginia right now include Booz Allen Hamilton, HII, and Esri, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. Northern Virginia's dense concentration of federal contractors and cloud infrastructure firms makes it one of the more active backend hiring markets on the East Coast.
Which Virginia cities have the most backend engineer jobs?
McLean, Reston, and Arlington have the most backend engineer openings in Virginia. Northern Virginia dominates because of its federal agency clients, defense contractors, and Amazon Web Services' regional footprint, while Richmond draws hiring from financial services firms and state government technology initiatives, and Hampton Roads sees demand from Navy and military technology contractors.
Are there remote backend engineer jobs in Virginia?
Yes, and more than most fields. About 73% of backend engineer openings tied to Virginia are remote or hybrid as of November 2026, reflecting how naturally the role fits distributed work. Fully remote positions tend to cluster around cloud infrastructure, API development, and SaaS product teams, while roles tied to classified federal work or on-site defense programs typically require in-person presence in Northern Virginia or Hampton Roads.
How can I get hired as a backend engineer in Virginia with little or no experience?
The most realistic entry path is an associate or junior software engineer role, often reached through a computer science degree internship pipeline or a bootcamp portfolio strong in one backend language. Large Virginia technology employers like Booz Allen Hamilton and SAIC run new-graduate hiring programs that accept candidates without professional experience. Adjacent roles such as QA engineer, DevOps associate, or IT analyst at a Virginia federal contractor frequently transition into backend engineering within one to two assignment cycles, and holding or qualifying for a security clearance gives entry-level candidates a clear edge in the Northern Virginia market.
Where can I find and apply to backend engineer jobs in Virginia?
You can find and apply to backend engineer jobs in Virginia on Migrate Mate, which lists current openings across the state. Find roles that fit your experience and apply directly to the employers posting them.
See All 27 Backend Engineer Jobs in Virginia
Find roles in Virginia that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
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