Senior Backend Engineer

Hi we're DuckDuckGo the online protection company and remote-first team of 300+ on a mission to raise the standard of trust online. Founded in 2008 and profitable since 2014 annual revenue now exceeds $100m USD and millions use our browser on Mac Windows iOS and Android our search engine and the DuckDuckGo subscription. Our culture of trust inclusivity and empowered project management underpins everything we do where each team member takes full ownership of their projects from scoping and execution to postmortem. If you're seeking end-to-end ownership of your work — you've come to the right place!

Working on the Backend Functional Team you'll lead complex projects across key company-wide objectives. Using Perl (Version 5) Go and Node.js you’ll write pragmatic performant testable code that works consistently and work on related projects. Recent projects include:

• Implementing AI-assisted answers and integrating them into our Search product while maintaining our privacy-first approach

• Delivering improvements to Duck.ai to help us make it a competitive AI chat alternative for both free and paying users

• Implementing sophisticated data processing pipelines that maintain search relevancy

As a Senior Backend Engineer you'll collaborate remotely with your peers and take responsibility for solving product issues impacting our all-in-one privacy solution whether large or small. In time you'll formally mentor other engineers supporting their career growth and the growth of the Backend Team at DuckDuckGo.

• 7+ years of professional experience primarily focused on backend systems that power consumer-facing products

• Product acumen to reason about technical tradeoffs in terms of user impact

• Familiarity with AI agent tooling: evaluation frameworks RAG pipelines and prompt engineering

• A fundamental understanding of complex data structures and algorithms — you can develop and apply new solutions and confidently navigate and improve existing code.

• Data-driven analytical skills for decision-making stakeholder alignment and experiment-oriented delivery

• Solid project management abilities

• Excellent written and verbal communication to validate and articulate decisions

• Previous experience leading and mentoring experienced engineers supporting their career goals and unlocking their potential.

$178500 USD annually and stock options. Compensation is identical within professional levels regardless of geographic location or team. Compensation for each professional level is transparent across the organization.

Eligibility for company-sponsored health benefits is limited to team members based in the United States. This program does not extend to team members located in other countries such as Canada or the UK.

Our Team Member Support Guide explains how we prioritize your wellbeing including paid parental leave office setup and co-working allowances.

Hiring works best when it's a two-way street. Learn how we help you get to know DuckDuckGo envision your future role here and find out more about how we hire.

DuckDuckGo provides equal work opportunities to all team members and applicants and it prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type on the basis of race color ethnicity caste religion age sex (including pregnancy) national origin disability status genetics protected veteran status sexual orientation gender identity or expression or any other characteristic protected by our policies or federal state or local laws.

We want to ensure that our hiring process is accessible. If you need reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process because of a medical condition or disability please send an email to [email protected] to let us know the nature of your request.

• You’ll be required to attend meetings on camera via video conferencing

• Expect to travel at least two times a year: once for our all-hands meetup and again for a team retreat (each around 4-5 days). While extenuating circumstances may impact attendance everyone is strongly encouraged to attend.

• While we offer a flexible work arrangement with no core hours expect an average full-time commitment of 40 hours per week.

• A successful candidate must pass a background check as a condition of joining the team.

• By applying for this role you confirm that all information submitted is accurate and complete. You further acknowledge that providing false or fraudulent information during the application process is cause for denial of an offer revocation of any existing offer or other adverse action up to and including termination after the start of your commencement of work.

Disclosure Statement: Use of AI in Hiring Process

As part of our commitment to enhancing our recruitment process we utilize artificial intelligence (AI) technology to assist in reviewing and summarizing job applications and test projects including those tools integrated into our recruitment vendor platforms. We use AI to flag potentially fraudulent applications analyze and summarize applicants’ experience interviews and project performance and help streamline our selection process.

Key Principles:

• Data Privacy: All information provided in your application will be handled in accordance with our Recruiting Privacy Policy. We ensure that your personal information is protected and used solely for recruitment purposes.

• Human Oversight and Accountability: The AI technology is designed to support our hiring team by providing insights and summaries of applications and evaluations of test projects against scoring rubrics. All final evaluations and hiring decisions however will be made by our hiring team who will consider the AI's input alongside other factors.

• Transparency: We believe in transparency regarding our hiring practices. If you have any questions about how AI is used in our recruitment process please feel free to reach out to us.

By submitting your application you acknowledge and consent to the use of AI technology in our review process. If you would like to request an alternative selection process please contact us as at [email protected]. Thank you for your interest in joining DuckDuckGo!

#LI-DNI

What We Do

At DuckDuckGo we believe the best way to protect your personal information from hackers scammers and privacy-invasive companies is to stop it from being collected at all. That's why millions of people choose DuckDuckGo over Chrome and other browsers to search and browse online. Our built-in search engine is like Google but never tracks your searches. And our browsing protections such as ad tracker blocking and cookie blocking help stop other companies from collecting your data. Oh and our browser is free — we make money from privacy-respecting search ads not by exploiting your data. Take back control of your personal information with the browser designed for data protection not data collection. Available to download on Mac Windows iOS and Android.