Backend Infrastructure Engineer Jobs in USA with Visa Sponsorship
Backend infrastructure engineers are among the most consistently sponsored roles in tech. H-1B visa, O-1 visa, and L-1 visas all apply depending on your background, and employers filing LCAs for infrastructure roles outn visaumber available candidates most years. For detailed occupation requirements, see the O*NET profile.
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Get Access To All JobsINTRODUCTION
Figure is an AI Robotics company developing a general purpose humanoid. Our humanoid robot is designed for commercial tasks and the home. We are based in San Jose and require 5 days/week in-office collaboration. It’s time to build. We're looking for a senior-level backend engineer who has scaled high-throughput, low-latency data systems and has strong instincts around cloud infrastructure and real-time streaming pipelines. You'll architect and build the core backend systems that power Figure's real-time data infrastructure — enabling the scale and reliability that our AI and robotics platforms depend on. This is a high-ownership role at the intersection of media and sensor data streaming, cloud systems, and applied ML serving. You'll work closely with our AI and robotics teams to ensure latency, reliability, and throughput meet the demands of real-world robot operation.
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- Architect and scale cloud backend infrastructure for high-concurrency, real-time streaming of media and sensor data across robot fleets and user sessions.
- Design and build low-latency data pipelines that ingest, route, and process high-bandwidth streams — including camera feeds, IMU data, and other robot sensor outputs — into our AI stack in real time.
- Own reliability, latency, and throughput SLAs for streaming and data infrastructure.
- Collaborate with AI and robotics teams to integrate ML model serving into real-time data pipelines.
- Build observability, alerting, and tooling to give the team full situational awareness over live robot traffic.
- Drive architectural decisions and mentor engineers across the team.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
What We're Looking For
- Deep experience scaling cloud backend systems handling high-concurrency, real-time data streams — media, sensor, telemetry, or equivalent high-bandwidth pipelines.
- Strong fundamentals in distributed systems: stream processing, connection management, data transport, and low-latency architecture.
- Proficiency in one or more backend languages (Go, C++, Python, Rust) and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
- Experience with containerized infrastructure, service mesh, and large-scale deployment pipelines.
- Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
NICE TO HAVE
- Hands-on experience integrating AI inference serving (Triton Inference Server, TensorRT, SageMaker, or similar) into real-time data pipelines.
- Background in robotics, autonomous vehicles, live media platforms, or other latency-critical streaming domains.
- Familiarity with protocols such as WebRTC, RTSP, gRPC, or Kafka for real-time data transport.
- Experience with on-device or edge inference and the tradeoffs of cloud vs. edge processing.
COMPENSATION
The US base salary range for this full-time position is between $150,000 - $400,000 annually. The pay offered for this position may vary based on several individual factors, including job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The total compensation package may also include additional components/benefits depending on the specific role. This information will be shared if an employment offer is extended.
INTRODUCTION
Figure is an AI Robotics company developing a general purpose humanoid. Our humanoid robot is designed for commercial tasks and the home. We are based in San Jose and require 5 days/week in-office collaboration. It’s time to build. We're looking for a senior-level backend engineer who has scaled high-throughput, low-latency data systems and has strong instincts around cloud infrastructure and real-time streaming pipelines. You'll architect and build the core backend systems that power Figure's real-time data infrastructure — enabling the scale and reliability that our AI and robotics platforms depend on. This is a high-ownership role at the intersection of media and sensor data streaming, cloud systems, and applied ML serving. You'll work closely with our AI and robotics teams to ensure latency, reliability, and throughput meet the demands of real-world robot operation.
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- Architect and scale cloud backend infrastructure for high-concurrency, real-time streaming of media and sensor data across robot fleets and user sessions.
- Design and build low-latency data pipelines that ingest, route, and process high-bandwidth streams — including camera feeds, IMU data, and other robot sensor outputs — into our AI stack in real time.
- Own reliability, latency, and throughput SLAs for streaming and data infrastructure.
- Collaborate with AI and robotics teams to integrate ML model serving into real-time data pipelines.
- Build observability, alerting, and tooling to give the team full situational awareness over live robot traffic.
- Drive architectural decisions and mentor engineers across the team.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
What We're Looking For
- Deep experience scaling cloud backend systems handling high-concurrency, real-time data streams — media, sensor, telemetry, or equivalent high-bandwidth pipelines.
- Strong fundamentals in distributed systems: stream processing, connection management, data transport, and low-latency architecture.
- Proficiency in one or more backend languages (Go, C++, Python, Rust) and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
- Experience with containerized infrastructure, service mesh, and large-scale deployment pipelines.
- Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
NICE TO HAVE
- Hands-on experience integrating AI inference serving (Triton Inference Server, TensorRT, SageMaker, or similar) into real-time data pipelines.
- Background in robotics, autonomous vehicles, live media platforms, or other latency-critical streaming domains.
- Familiarity with protocols such as WebRTC, RTSP, gRPC, or Kafka for real-time data transport.
- Experience with on-device or edge inference and the tradeoffs of cloud vs. edge processing.
COMPENSATION
The US base salary range for this full-time position is between $150,000 - $400,000 annually. The pay offered for this position may vary based on several individual factors, including job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The total compensation package may also include additional components/benefits depending on the specific role. This information will be shared if an employment offer is extended.
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Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding Visa Sponsorship as a Backend Infrastructure Engineer
Target companies with active LCA filings
Employers who have filed Labor Condition Applications for infrastructure roles in the past two years are your strongest leads. Prior filings signal an established sponsorship process, legal infrastructure, and willingness to repeat it for the right hire.
Align your degree to the role's specialty occupation requirement
H-1B sponsorship requires your role to qualify as a specialty occupation. Computer science, software engineering, and information systems degrees map cleanly to backend infrastructure. A mismatched degree increases RFE risk significantly, so document the connection clearly.
Flag cloud and distributed systems experience early
Employers sponsoring infrastructure engineers want concrete proof of scope. Kubernetes orchestration, large-scale distributed systems, and cloud platform expertise like AWS or GCP signal the level of specialization that justifies the sponsorship investment and strengthens the H-1B petition.
Consider employers with cap-exempt status
Universities, research institutions, and certain nonprofits are exempt from the H-1B lottery. Backend infrastructure roles exist at these organizations, and a cap-exempt offer means no lottery risk and a faster, more predictable path to starting work on H-1B status.
Build a paper trail of technical leadership
If you're targeting O-1A as an alternative to H-1B, evidence matters more than titles. Patents, open-source contributions with measurable adoption, conference presentations, and peer-reviewed technical writing all strengthen an extraordinary ability petition for an infrastructure engineer.
Use Migrate Mate to find infrastructure roles open to sponsorship
Not every job listing makes sponsorship eligibility clear upfront. Migrate Mate filters specifically for employers willing to sponsor, saving you from applying to roles that will screen you out the moment you mention your visa status.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is backend infrastructure engineering considered a specialty occupation for H-1B purposes?
Yes, in most cases. USCIS treats software engineering and infrastructure roles as specialty occupations when the position requires at least a bachelor's degree in computer science, information systems, or a closely related field. Roles involving cloud architecture, distributed systems, or site reliability engineering have a strong track record of approval. Where petitions run into trouble is when the job description is written too broadly or the degree requirement isn't explicitly stated in the offer letter.
Do I need a four-year degree to get sponsored as a backend infrastructure engineer?
A four-year bachelor's degree is the standard requirement for H-1B visa sponsorship, but it doesn't have to be from a U.S. institution. Three-year degrees from countries like India, Australia, or the UK are often accepted when paired with relevant work experience. If you don't have a degree at all, three years of specialized work experience can substitute for each year of missing education under USCIS equivalency rules, though this requires a formal credential evaluation and carries more petition risk.
Which visa types are most commonly used to sponsor backend infrastructure engineers?
H-1B is the most common path for infrastructure engineers entering the U.S. job market. L-1B is an option if you're being transferred intracompany and have specialized knowledge of proprietary systems. O-1A applies if you can demonstrate extraordinary ability through patents, notable open-source contributions, or recognized technical leadership. TN visa status covers Canadian and Mexican nationals in certain engineering roles. The right visa depends on your nationality, current status, and employer situation.
What H-1B approval rates look like for infrastructure and systems engineering roles?
Backend and infrastructure engineering roles have historically seen strong H-1B approval rates, generally above 85% for properly documented petitions at employers with established sponsorship programs. Approval rates dip when job descriptions are vague, degree-to-role connections are weak, or the employer is flagged for high-volume filings. Premium processing, which returns a decision within 15 business days, is widely used in tech to reduce uncertainty. Roles at large cloud and enterprise infrastructure companies have the most consistent track records.
How do I find backend infrastructure jobs that are actually open to visa sponsorship?
The practical challenge is that many infrastructure job listings don't state sponsorship eligibility clearly, and you often find out only after several rounds of interviews. Migrate Mate is built specifically to surface jobs where employers have confirmed willingness to sponsor, so you're not wasting time on applications that will stall at the visa question. Filtering by sponsorship from the start is especially important for infrastructure roles, where technical screens are time-intensive.
What is the prevailing wage requirement for sponsored Backend Infrastructure Engineer jobs?
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.