$165k - $220k
Role: Senior Backend Software Engineer Location: San Diego, CA (in-office) Salary Range: $165,000 - $220,000 / yr + stock options, 401k matching, and other benefits Role Overview: Seasats' vehicles operate for months at…
Engineering & IT · San Diego, CA
Backend Developer jobs in San Diego, CA
Backend developers build the server-side logic, APIs, and data layers that applications run on. The job is designing services that stay correct, fast, and secure as usage grows.
89
Open roles today
$41–$108/hr
Typical pay range
$145k
Median, full-time
8
Fresh in this list
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01
Open backend developer roles
12 shown of 89 · sorted by freshness
$92.3k - $166.85k
Software Test Engineer will be responsible for the quality of the developed product and participating in manual and automated testing... ...in both the manual and automated testing of user interface and backend software…
$150k - $244k
Staff / Sr Staff Engineer - System SoftwareCategorySoftwareLocationSan Diego, CA ExperienceMore than 8 Years Work Expe.Job Description• Bring up new platform boards and verify the major functions independently• Regular s…
test, and operate Hivemind capabilities. It connects autonomy developers with the applications, services, compute, data, and workflows... ...integrations, and agent tools. Working across frontend architecture, backend se…
$247.5k - $335k
from Architecture, Product Management, and Operations to design, develop, test, and release featuresCommunityContributes to standards,... ...AI technologies and tools, applying them to user experiences or backend solutio…
$160k - $250k
Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube. Job Description:Shield AI is seeking a Senior Engineer to help design, develop, and integrate a safety critical Run-Time Assurance (RTA) product. The Hivemind Foun…
development and implementation of highly effective applications meet the evolving needs of ICE. Responsibilities: The Full Stack Developer will be responsible for the design, development, integration, testing, deployment…
$87.1k - $157.45k
and subject matter experts from the areas of systems engineering, hardware, firmware, RF front-end design, and signal processing. Developing software for a variety of microarchitectures, including DSP, ARM, or RISC-VDeve…
$149.8k - $262.2k
It all started when engineer Fred Luddy wrote code that automated a tedious task for his coworker, Phyllis. She cried tears of joy. That moment inspired Fred to build a company that could do that for everyone—freeing peo…
$90k - $115k
after year. About the role We are looking for a full-stack Web Developer to join Miva's Professional Services team. This is a client-... ..., and error handling Troubleshoot and resolve frontend, backend, and configurati…
$60 - $90 per hour
end standards and best practices. Responsibilities Design, develop, and maintain responsive, accessible, and performant web... ...performance, accessibility, and security. Collaborate with backend and platform engineerin…
advanced knowledge of software engineering practices and techniques, technology trends, and working knowledge of domain expertise. - Develop detailed software architecture and design documents. -Ability to implement the…
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What backend developers earn in San Diego
Hourly first — that's how the offer arrives
| Experience | Hourly | Annual, full-time |
|---|---|---|
| Entry level | $41–$57 | $85k–$118k |
| Mid level | $57–$82 | $118k–$171k |
| Senior | $79–$108 | $165k–$224k |
Adjusted for the San Diego market from national ranges.
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What employers ask for
The skills these listings keep naming
A server language (Java, Go, Python, C#)API design (REST, gRPC)SQL and schema designCaching and queuesAuthentication and securityDistributed systems basicsDocker and CI/CDObservability and logging
04
Interview questions worth rehearsing
With the thing the interviewer is actually listening for
Design an API for a feature like comments or notifications.
Clarify requirements, then cover endpoints, data model, pagination, and error handling. Mentioning versioning and rate limits shows production experience.
How would you find and fix a slow database query?
Walk through reading the query plan, checking indexes, and considering caching or denormalization. Ground it in a query you actually fixed.
How do you keep two services consistent when both need to update data?
Discuss transactions, idempotency, and eventual consistency with outbox or saga patterns. Acknowledge tradeoffs rather than promising perfect consistency.
What do you monitor on a service you own?
Name the basics — latency, error rate, saturation — plus business-level signals. Bonus points for talking about alerts you tuned to reduce noise.
Tell me about a production incident you handled.
Structure it: detection, mitigation, root cause, prevention. Emphasize what changed afterward, not just the firefight.
How do you approach securing an API?
Cover authentication, authorization, input validation, and secrets handling. Naming OWASP-style risks concretely is enough; you are not expected to be a security engineer.
When would you choose a message queue over a direct call?
Talk about decoupling, retries, and absorbing spikes, and be honest about the added complexity of async debugging.
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Resume tips that move the needle
For backend developers specifically — generic advice costs you here
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State scale where you can: requests per second, data volume, or number of services — it is the fastest way to signal seniority.
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Name the databases and infrastructure you ran in production, not just languages.
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Describe reliability work — migrations without downtime, incident reduction, test coverage on critical paths.
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If you designed an API others consume, say so and note how many teams or clients depend on it.
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Avoid listing every framework you have touched; two stacks with depth read better than eight without.
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Where this role goes
Typical progression
01
Junior Backend Developer
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Backend Developer
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Senior Backend Developer
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Staff Engineer
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Principal Engineer
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