Software Engineer, Backend - Distributed Compute

The role

You will build application software that runs on deployed hardware to collect telemetry, run compute tasks, and report state to central systems. You will design device-to-cloud communication protocols and deployment infrastructure for a fleet of distributed devices.

What you will do

• Design and implement core device software for thousands of deployed devices.
• Build device-to-cloud communication protocols that handle network interruptions and latency.
• Create safe, rapid deployment infrastructure and tooling with rollback mechanisms.
• Develop telemetry systems for remote debugging and system understanding.
• Work within hardware constraints like memory, CPU, power, and storage.
• Collaborate with hardware engineers to translate device capabilities into architectural decisions.
• Partner with infrastructure teams on sync protocols, authentication, and secure communication.
• Ship tested, reviewed, monitored, and maintainable code.

Required qualifications

• 3+ years of production software experience on physical devices, IoT systems, or embedded systems
• Strong experience in C, C++, Rust, Go, or equivalent systems languages
• Deep understanding of networking, HTTP/REST APIs, and device communication protocols
• Experience building software that handles unreliable networks, offline states, and eventual sync
• Familiarity with Linux or equivalent operating systems at the system level
• Understanding of battery life, memory constraints, and performance optimization on resource-constrained hardware
• Comfort owning backend device software end-to-end: development, testing, deployment, and monitoring

Nice to have

• Experience with real-time or safety-critical systems
• Background in automotive, robotics, industrial IoT, or energy/utilities
• Experience with OTA (over-the-air) updates and device management platforms
• Familiarity with containerization or lightweight runtimes (Docker, systemd, etc.)
• Experience with gRPC or other RPC frameworks for device communication
• Exposure to cryptography and secure communication on devices
• Experience with distributed tracing and understanding system behavior at edge scale

About the company

Base is America’s next-generation power company rebuilding the electricity foundation by deploying a network of distributed batteries. They are engineers, operators, and creatives solving complex, interdisciplinary challenges.