Backend Software Engineer Visa Sponsorship Jobs in California
California is one of the top states for backend software engineer visa sponsorship, driven by Silicon Valley giants like Google, Apple, Meta, and Salesforce alongside thousands of startups in San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles. The state's concentration of tech employers and active H-1B visa filing history makes it a strong market for international backend engineers.
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INTRODUCTION
Offerwall by Unity is a leading mobile advertising and monetization platform that helps game developers maximize revenue and engage users through rewarded experiences. For over a decade, we've connected millions of players with offers that provide tangible in-app value, and we're now building the next generation of that product.
At the center of it is Offer Delivery, the backend service that decides which offer a player sees, when, and on what terms. It operates on two fronts: bidding in real time as a DSP into multiformat fullscreen auctions, and retrieves input features, calls our ML ranking models, and applies targeting, pacing, and supply-side rules to choose what offers gets shown.
We're seeking a Staff Backend Engineer to be the technical leader for Offer Delivery. You will set the technical vision, define the architecture, influence the roadmap, and drive delivery, owning how targeting, pacing, and supply-side rules are enforced on the serving path.
This is a meaningful role at the intersection of recommender systems, rewarded advertising, fraud prevention, and large-scale data processing. You'll work with frontier AI tools and workflows, including Claude, Codex, and LiteLLM.
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- Architect & Design: Set the technical direction for Offer Delivery, owning the architecture of its services and leading design on its most critical initiatives.
- Build & Ship: Build, test, and ship the Golang and Java services that decide which offer each player sees, across real-time bidding into display auctions (OpenRTB) and direct placement outside the auction flow.
- Evolve the Recommender: Work with the ML modeling team to take ranking improvements from idea to production, covering feature retrieval, scoring data, model serving integration, and online experiments.
- Lead Across Teams: Offer Delivery sits between the auction, ML, platform, and product teams. Align them on shared decisions and drive delivery across team boundaries.
- Operate at Scale: Ensure the high availability and reliability of our production services, including on-call rotations and proactive system monitoring.
- Raise the Bar: Mentor engineers, set engineering standards, and lead by example on code and design quality.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- Technical Leadership: Track record of owning a significant backend system, setting direction, making the architectural calls, and getting it delivered through others as well as yourself.
- High-scale distributed systems: Demonstrated ability to design and ship large-scale, highly available, latency-sensitive distributed services with complex business logic.
- Core Technologies: Strong proficiency in backend development using Go or Java (or clear ability to become effective in Go quickly). Working knowledge of gRPC with a willingness to adapt to the best tool for the job.
- Observability & Data Streaming: Practical experience with observability platforms (logging, metrics, monitoring/tracing) and message bus technologies for managing complex data streams.
- Integration Design: Track record of building new systems amid rapidly shifting requirements. You can design systems that are stable through three requirement changes, and you know which change should revise the core data flow.
- Cross-team influence & mentorship: Experience driving technical work across team boundaries and developing the engineers around you.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience building recommender systems, marketplace matching, or ads ranking systems in production.
- Experience building or operating a DSP, ad exchange, or real-time bidding system, with familiarity with OpenRTB, auction mechanics, or programmatic advertising.
- Working understanding of supply-side ad mediation, such as waterfall vs. bidding and adapter and SDK integration.
COMPENSATION
- Zone A: $200,400 - $260,500
- Zone B: $178,300 - $231,800
- Zone C: $157,800 - $205,200
This range reflects the anticipated base salary for this position. Beyond base salary, this role may be eligible for equity awards and participation in our company incentive plans (such as annual discretionary bonuses or sales commissions). The final offer amount will depend on several factors, including geographic location and the candidate’s relevant experience, professional background, and skill set.
BENEFITS
At Unity, we want our team members to thrive. We offer a wide range of benefits designed to support well-being and work-life balance.
Please note: Benefits eligibility, specific offerings, and coverage vary based on the country and employment status.
While specific benefits vary, here are some of the ways we strive to take care of our eligible team members globally: Comprehensive health, life, and disability insurance | Commute subsidy | Employee stock ownership | Competitive retirement/pension plans | Generous vacation and personal days | Support for new parents through leave and family-care programs | Office food snacks | Mental Health and Wellbeing programs and support | Employee Resource Groups | Global Employee Assistance Program | Training and development programs | Volunteering and donation matching program
LIFE AT UNITY
Unity [NYSE: U] is the world’s leading game engine, powering play for more than 3 billion consumers each month. The top mobile games in the world, the most played PC indie titles, the most innovative console games, and virtually all of the top XR and Web Games are developed, deployed, and grown in Unity. Unity also enables teams across industries like automotive, manufacturing, and healthcare to design, simulate, and collaborate in 3D — closing the gap between ideas and reality.
Unity is a proud equal opportunity employer. We are committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment and celebrate our employees across age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other protected status in accordance with applicable law. Our differences are strengths that enable us to support the growing and evolving needs of our customers, partners, and collaborators. If you have a disability that means there are preparations or accommodations we can make to help ensure you have a comfortable and positive interview experience, please fill out this form to let us know.
Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
This position requires the incumbent to have a sufficient knowledge of English to have professional verbal and written exchanges in this language since the performance of the duties related to this position requires frequent and regular communication with colleagues and partners located worldwide and whose common language is English.
Headhunters and recruitment agencies may not submit resumes/CVs through this Web site or directly to managers. Unity does not accept unsolicited headhunter and agency resumes. Unity will not pay fees to any third-party agency or company that does not have a signed agreement with Unity.
Your privacy is important to us. Please take a moment to review our Prospect and Applicant Privacy Policies. Should you have any concerns about your privacy, please contact us at DPO@unity.com.
Backend Software Engineer Job Roles in California
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Search Backend Software Engineer Jobs in CaliforniaBackend Software Engineer Jobs in California: Frequently Asked Questions
Which companies sponsor visas for backend software engineers in California?
California's largest H-1B sponsors for backend engineering roles include Google, Apple, Meta, Amazon, Salesforce, Intuit, Adobe, and Nvidia, all of which file significant volumes of Labor Condition Applications annually. Beyond large tech employers, mid-size companies in fintech, healthtech, and enterprise SaaS across the Bay Area and Los Angeles regularly sponsor backend engineers as well.
Which visa types are most common for backend software engineer roles in California?
The H-1B is by far the most common visa for backend software engineers in California, as the role consistently qualifies as a specialty occupation requiring a bachelor's degree in computer science or a related field. Some engineers also enter on L-1B intracompany transferee visas, O-1A visas for those with demonstrated exceptional ability, or TN visas for Canadian and Mexican nationals under USMCA.
Which cities in California have the most backend software engineer sponsorship jobs?
San Jose and the broader Bay Area account for the largest share of backend software engineer sponsorship activity in California, anchored by the concentration of major tech headquarters in Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, and San Francisco. Los Angeles is a growing secondary market, particularly in media technology, e-commerce, and startup ecosystems, while San Diego has a notable presence in biotech and defense software.
How to find backend software engineer visa sponsorship jobs in California?
Migrate Mate filters job listings specifically by visa sponsorship availability, making it easier to identify California employers actively open to sponsoring backend software engineers rather than sorting through roles that don't mention sponsorship at all. You can filter by location and role to surface relevant openings across the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and San Diego from companies with documented sponsorship histories.
Are there any California-specific considerations for backend software engineers seeking visa sponsorship?
California's prevailing wage requirements under the H-1B program are among the highest in the country given the state's cost of living and competitive tech market, so employers must meet Department of Labor wage levels specific to each metro area. The state's strong university pipeline from UC Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, and UC San Diego also means California employers are experienced with OPT-to-H-1B transitions for international graduates.
What is the prevailing wage for sponsored backend software engineer jobs in California?
U.S. employers sponsoring a visa must pay at least the prevailing wage, which is what workers in the same role, area, and experience level typically earn. The Department of Labor sets this rate to make sure companies aren't hiring foreign workers simply because they'd accept lower pay than a U.S. worker. It varies by job title, location, and experience. You can look up current prevailing wage rates for any occupation and location using the OFLC Wage Search page.