Job Description Job Description Job Description: Short Description : The Senior JAVA Developer position requires in-depth knowledge of JAVA and J2EE background using Spring Technologies framework, design, and architectur…
Engineering & IT · Washington, DC
Backend Developer jobs in Washington, DC
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.
3,090
Open roles today
$43–$114/hr
Typical pay range
$153k
Median, full-time
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01
Open backend developer roles
5 shown of 3,090 · sorted by freshness
Description Job Description Role Summary We are looking for a Backend Engineer to build core backend services for a predictive... ...security response workflows. Key Responsibilities Design and develop scalable backend s…
Job Detail Organization: GeoAcuity Title: Back-End Developer Location: On-site — St. Louis, MO | DC Metro | Springfield, VA | Redlands... ...software leveraging Esri's products and APIs to deliver core backend services t…
$120k - $130k
Our client, an award-winning Legal Tech company, is hiring a Backend Engineer to join their team remotely. The successful candidate will join an early-stage team and play a pivotal role in developing AI-driven technology…
$115k - $135k
work with partners and clients who share those values. No recruiters, please. Teal Media is looking for a Senior WordPress Backend Developer who's a thoughtful problem-solver and hands-on builder. This role is a client-f…
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What backend developers earn in Washington
Hourly first — that's how the offer arrives
| Experience | Hourly | Annual, full-time |
|---|---|---|
| Entry level | $43–$60 | $90k–$125k |
| Mid level | $60–$87 | $125k–$181k |
| Senior | $84–$114 | $175k–$238k |
Adjusted for the Washington 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.
05
Resume tips that move the needle
For backend developers specifically — generic advice costs you here
01
State scale where you can: requests per second, data volume, or number of services — it is the fastest way to signal seniority.
02
Name the databases and infrastructure you ran in production, not just languages.
03
Describe reliability work — migrations without downtime, incident reduction, test coverage on critical paths.
04
If you designed an API others consume, say so and note how many teams or clients depend on it.
05
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
02
Backend Developer
03
Senior Backend Developer
04
Staff Engineer
05
Principal Engineer
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