OPT Backend Engineer Jobs
Backend Engineer roles are among the most OPT-friendly positions in tech. Most require a degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, which aligns well with F-1 eligibility. STEM OPT extension applies, giving you up to 36 months of authorized work to gain experience and secure H-1B visa sponsorship.
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Get Access To All JobsINTRODUCTION
Meet the team
We are a dynamic, high-velocity engineering team dedicated to building Splunk’s industry-leading Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and full-stack observability platforms. Our work empowers global enterprises to visualize, tackle, and optimize complex cloud-native architectures in real time, serving as a vital pillar in Cisco and Splunk’s unified Observability and Cloud Operations strategy! We champion a collaborative, highly technical, and encouraging culture where engineers thrive under leadership that actively champions mentorship and long-term career growth! What makes our team especially exciting is our forward-thinking integration with Splunk's powerful data ecosystem, alongside modern AI tooling, sub-agents, and automated developer workflows deeply embedded into our daily software delivery.
YOUR IMPACT
As a Full Stack Software Engineer, you will develop, build, and ship end-to-end features and bug fixes across our high-scale Java backend microservices and modern React frontend applications.
- Participate in scheduled on-call rotations (3 rotations/year) to proactively diagnose, solve, and resolve APM backend issues and customer escalations.
- Develop and deploy robust, high-performance features across Java backend services and React user interfaces to provide flawless observability experiences for our customers.
- Leverage AI-assisted development practices, sub-agents, and automated workflows to increase code velocity, maintain token efficiency, and tackle technical challenges faster.
- Partner closely with Product Owners, Technical Owners, and UX designers to translate complex observability requirements into scalable, intuitive technical solutions.
- Author clear technical documentation, participate in constructive code reviews, and contribute innovative system design ideas to continuously elevate team standards.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
- Meet one of the following (completed within the past 3 years or expected to be completed within the next 12 months):
- A Bachelor's degree with 0 years of work experience; or
- An educational or workforce development program (e.g., Associate’s, Apprenticeship, Boot camp, or Certification) with 1 year of work experience; or
- High school diploma (or equivalent) with 2 years of work experience.
- Qualifying education and work experience should be in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, or a related technical discipline.
- Demonstrated experience developing backend services and applications using Java (or Python / Go).
- Hands-on experience building interactive web applications and user interfaces using React (or modern JavaScript/TypeScript frameworks).
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Hands-on experience demonstrating modern AI-assisted development tools, Model Context Protocols (MCPs), or developer sub-agents to streamline software workflows and automation.
- Prior exposure to Splunk Observability Cloud, Application Performance Monitoring (APM), distributed tracing, cloud telemetry, or metrics platforms.
- Practical experience designing data stores (SQL and NoSQL), integrating RESTful or GraphQL APIs, and deploying containerized services in Kubernetes (K8s).
- Familiarity with frontend visualization libraries (such as D3.js) and building complex, high-performance interactive dashboards.
- Strong analytical problem-solving and communication skills, with a track record of effective cross-functional collaboration across Product and UX teams, paired with a drive for full-stack career growth.
WHY CISCO?
At Cisco, we’re revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era – and beyond. We’ve been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint.
Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you’ll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale. Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere.
We are Cisco, and our power starts with you.
COMPENSATION
The starting salary range posted for this position is $84,600.00 to $113,600.00 and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation*, equity, or benefits.
Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location, market conditions, job-related skillset, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and/or training. The full salary range for certain locations is listed below. For locations not listed below, the recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.
U.S. employees are offered benefits, subject to Cisco’s plan eligibility rules, which include medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability coverage, and basic life insurance. Please see the Cisco careers site to discover more benefits and perks. Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time.
U.S. employees are eligible for paid time away as described below, subject to Cisco’s policies:
- 10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
- 1 paid day off for employee’s birthday, paid year-end holiday shutdown, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by Cisco
- Non-exempt employees** receive 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees
- Exempt employees participate in Cisco’s flexible vacation time off program, which has no defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use (subject to availability and some business limitations)
- 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, and up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward from one calendar year to the next
- Additional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family members
- Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer
For non-sales roles, employees are also eligible to earn annual bonuses subject to Cisco’s policies.
Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary, which is split between quota and non-quota components, subject to the applicable Cisco plan. For quota-based incentive pay, Cisco typically pays as follows:
- .75% of incentive target for each 1% of revenue attainment up to 50% of quota;
- 1.5% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 50% and 75%;
- 1% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 75% and 100%; and
- Once performance exceeds 100% attainment, incentive rates are at or above 1% for each 1% of attainment with no cap on incentive compensation.
For non-quota-based sales performance elements such as strategic sales objectives, Cisco may pay 0% up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid.
The applicable full salary ranges for this position, by specific state, are listed below:
New York City Metro Area:
$107,800.00 - $157,400.00
Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:
$94,800.00 - $140,000.00
- For quota-based sales roles on Cisco’s sales plan, the ranges provided in this posting include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined.
Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:
Employees in Illinois, whether exempt or non-exempt, will participate in a unique time off program to meet local requirements.
INTRODUCTION
Meet the team
We are a dynamic, high-velocity engineering team dedicated to building Splunk’s industry-leading Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and full-stack observability platforms. Our work empowers global enterprises to visualize, tackle, and optimize complex cloud-native architectures in real time, serving as a vital pillar in Cisco and Splunk’s unified Observability and Cloud Operations strategy! We champion a collaborative, highly technical, and encouraging culture where engineers thrive under leadership that actively champions mentorship and long-term career growth! What makes our team especially exciting is our forward-thinking integration with Splunk's powerful data ecosystem, alongside modern AI tooling, sub-agents, and automated developer workflows deeply embedded into our daily software delivery.
YOUR IMPACT
As a Full Stack Software Engineer, you will develop, build, and ship end-to-end features and bug fixes across our high-scale Java backend microservices and modern React frontend applications.
- Participate in scheduled on-call rotations (3 rotations/year) to proactively diagnose, solve, and resolve APM backend issues and customer escalations.
- Develop and deploy robust, high-performance features across Java backend services and React user interfaces to provide flawless observability experiences for our customers.
- Leverage AI-assisted development practices, sub-agents, and automated workflows to increase code velocity, maintain token efficiency, and tackle technical challenges faster.
- Partner closely with Product Owners, Technical Owners, and UX designers to translate complex observability requirements into scalable, intuitive technical solutions.
- Author clear technical documentation, participate in constructive code reviews, and contribute innovative system design ideas to continuously elevate team standards.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
- Meet one of the following (completed within the past 3 years or expected to be completed within the next 12 months):
- A Bachelor's degree with 0 years of work experience; or
- An educational or workforce development program (e.g., Associate’s, Apprenticeship, Boot camp, or Certification) with 1 year of work experience; or
- High school diploma (or equivalent) with 2 years of work experience.
- Qualifying education and work experience should be in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, or a related technical discipline.
- Demonstrated experience developing backend services and applications using Java (or Python / Go).
- Hands-on experience building interactive web applications and user interfaces using React (or modern JavaScript/TypeScript frameworks).
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Hands-on experience demonstrating modern AI-assisted development tools, Model Context Protocols (MCPs), or developer sub-agents to streamline software workflows and automation.
- Prior exposure to Splunk Observability Cloud, Application Performance Monitoring (APM), distributed tracing, cloud telemetry, or metrics platforms.
- Practical experience designing data stores (SQL and NoSQL), integrating RESTful or GraphQL APIs, and deploying containerized services in Kubernetes (K8s).
- Familiarity with frontend visualization libraries (such as D3.js) and building complex, high-performance interactive dashboards.
- Strong analytical problem-solving and communication skills, with a track record of effective cross-functional collaboration across Product and UX teams, paired with a drive for full-stack career growth.
WHY CISCO?
At Cisco, we’re revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era – and beyond. We’ve been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint.
Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you’ll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale. Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere.
We are Cisco, and our power starts with you.
COMPENSATION
The starting salary range posted for this position is $84,600.00 to $113,600.00 and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation*, equity, or benefits.
Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location, market conditions, job-related skillset, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and/or training. The full salary range for certain locations is listed below. For locations not listed below, the recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.
U.S. employees are offered benefits, subject to Cisco’s plan eligibility rules, which include medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability coverage, and basic life insurance. Please see the Cisco careers site to discover more benefits and perks. Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time.
U.S. employees are eligible for paid time away as described below, subject to Cisco’s policies:
- 10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
- 1 paid day off for employee’s birthday, paid year-end holiday shutdown, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by Cisco
- Non-exempt employees** receive 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees
- Exempt employees participate in Cisco’s flexible vacation time off program, which has no defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use (subject to availability and some business limitations)
- 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, and up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward from one calendar year to the next
- Additional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family members
- Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer
For non-sales roles, employees are also eligible to earn annual bonuses subject to Cisco’s policies.
Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary, which is split between quota and non-quota components, subject to the applicable Cisco plan. For quota-based incentive pay, Cisco typically pays as follows:
- .75% of incentive target for each 1% of revenue attainment up to 50% of quota;
- 1.5% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 50% and 75%;
- 1% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 75% and 100%; and
- Once performance exceeds 100% attainment, incentive rates are at or above 1% for each 1% of attainment with no cap on incentive compensation.
For non-quota-based sales performance elements such as strategic sales objectives, Cisco may pay 0% up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid.
The applicable full salary ranges for this position, by specific state, are listed below:
New York City Metro Area:
$107,800.00 - $157,400.00
Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:
$94,800.00 - $140,000.00
- For quota-based sales roles on Cisco’s sales plan, the ranges provided in this posting include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined.
Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:
Employees in Illinois, whether exempt or non-exempt, will participate in a unique time off program to meet local requirements.
See all 49+ OPT Backend Engineer Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new OPT Backend Engineer Jobs.
Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding OPT Sponsorship as a Backend Engineer
Target STEM-designated employers first
Companies with an active E-Verify enrollment are required for your 24-month STEM OPT extension. Filter your search to employers already enrolled, since this signals they've hired international students before and understand the authorization process.
Lead with your authorization timeline upfront
Tell recruiters you have 12 months of OPT with STEM extension eligibility for up to 36 months total. Framing it as a multi-year window reduces hesitation and gives hiring managers a clear picture of your availability before sponsorship is needed.
Highlight backend-specific skills that are hard to source locally
Expertise in distributed systems, Kubernetes, Go, or Rust can make sponsorship worthwhile for employers. The harder your skill set is to find domestically, the stronger the business case for a company to invest in your visa sponsorship.
Focus on mid-size tech companies and funded startups
Series B and C startups often sponsor backend engineers because they're scaling fast and competing for talent aggressively. They're less bureaucratic than large enterprises and more willing to move quickly on candidates with strong technical profiles.
Get your OPT EAD card details ready before applying
Have your EAD card number, OPT start and end dates, and STEM extension eligibility documented. Recruiters may ask during initial screening, and having accurate answers immediately signals that you've managed your authorization responsibly.
Use Migrate Mate to find roles open to OPT candidates
Searching general job boards means filtering through roles that won't sponsor. Migrate Mate surfaces backend engineering jobs from employers who have sponsored international candidates, saving you time and reducing the chance of wasting applications on closed doors.
Backend Engineer OPT: Frequently Asked Questions
Can I work as a Backend Engineer on OPT without employer sponsorship?
Yes, during your initial OPT period you're authorized to work without any additional employer action beyond verifying your EAD. Your employer simply needs to confirm your work authorization. Sponsorship only becomes relevant when you need H-1B visa status after OPT expires, and most backend engineering roles qualify for H-1B as specialty occupations requiring a related degree.
Does a Backend Engineer role qualify for the STEM OPT extension?
Backend engineering roles almost always qualify for the 24-month STEM OPT extension, provided your degree is in a STEM-designated field such as Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Information Systems. Your employer must be E-Verify enrolled, and you'll need a formal training plan submitted through your DSO. This gives you up to 36 months total to work and pursue H-1B sponsorship.
What happens if I lose my Backend Engineer job while on OPT?
You have a 60-day unemployment grace period during your initial OPT and during your STEM extension. Accumulated unemployment days cannot exceed 90 days across your full OPT period. If you go beyond that, you fall out of status. Report job changes to your DSO immediately, update your SEVP portal record, and prioritize finding a new backend role quickly. Migrate Mate is a good place to search for OPT-eligible openings fast.
Do Backend Engineers on OPT need to worry about the H-1B cap?
If your goal is long-term work authorization, yes. The H-1B lottery runs once per year with registrations in March for an October 1 start date. Backend engineers at cap-exempt employers like universities or nonprofit research institutions bypass the lottery entirely. For cap-subject employers, you'll need to be selected in the lottery, so having a full 36 months of OPT authorization gives you multiple lottery cycles if needed.
Can I work as a contractor or on a project basis as a Backend Engineer on OPT?
Yes, but with important constraints. OPT requires that your work is directly related to your degree field, which backend engineering typically satisfies. However, you must be engaged in actual employment rather than passive investment or ownership. Contract and consulting arrangements are allowed as long as you can document the work relationship, hours, and how the role relates to your degree when required by USCIS or your DSO.