Staff Software Engineer (Backend)

• We are looking for a Staff Software Engineer to join the team at Ro
• In this role, you will operate as a technical leader, mentor, and architect — helping shape the future of our platform and driving the delivery of systems that directly impact patients and providers
• You will partner closely with other engineers, product managers, designers, and cross-functional leads to define and deliver technical roadmaps that balance immediate product needs with long-term technical stability, scalability, and maintainability
• As a Staff Engineer, you will not only design and build robust distributed systems but also mentor engineers, influence engineering culture, and play a key role in technical decision-making
• If you thrive in complex problem spaces, enjoy shaping technical direction at scale, and are motivated by the opportunity to improve healthcare through technology, we’d love to hear from you
• Design and build scalable, reliable, and resilient distributed services using Python and FastAPI
• Operate as an owner and technical leader within your team’s domain and proactively assess and improve system performance and reliability
• Drive engineering excellence through best practices in testing, monitoring, observability, and performance optimization
• Define and own technical roadmaps, breaking down ambiguous and complex problem spaces into clear project plans and deliverables
• Mentor and collaborate with engineers across levels, raising the technical bar and fostering growth across the team
• Lead cross-functional technical efforts — working closely with product managers, designers, and engineers from adjacent teams to ensure alignment and technical integrity across boundaries
• Participate in on-call rotations to ensure reliability of production systems

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision membership
• Equity for all team members
• Flexible time off
• Paid parental leave, and flexible work arrangement
• Well-stocked office with snacks and bi-weekly free lunches
• Gym, learning, and development stipends

Preferred experience

• Strong sense of ownership, with the ability to understand and break down complex problem spaces into technical roadmaps
• 7 - 10+ years of software engineering experience, including experience in roles involving technical leadership
• Experience architecting, designing and building scalable web applications and distributed systems
• Proven track record of scaling complex, data-intensive backend systems through rapid growth (ideally in a mid-to-late stage startup environment), ensuring high performance and availability
• Deep understanding of distributed systems-data consistency, communication patterns, and service boundaries-backed by hands-on experience building and maintaining data-intensive production systems
• Proficiency with Python, relational databases, and frameworks like FastAPI or Django, with hands-on experience in metrics instrumentation and data-driven performance tuning leveraging Ro’s load testing infrastructure and tools like Datadog
• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers, foster collaboration, and set technical direction
• Experience in telehealth or other highly regulated industries
• Experience with decoupling monolithic applications into distributed asynchronous services