Staff Backend Engineer

Job description

ABOUT BESTOW Life insurance is one of the world's most important products. It's also one of the hardest to build, distribute, and modernize. Bestow exists to change that. Bestow is a leading vertical technology platform serving some of the largest and most innovative life insurers. Our platform unifies the fragmented, legacy value chain, enabling carriers to launch products in weeks instead of years. Carriers choose us to scale and operate at unprecedented speed, powered by AI and automation. Bestow isn't selling policies. We're building the infrastructure that helps an entire industry move faster, reach more people, and deliver on its promise. Backed by leading investors (Goldman Sachs, Hedosophia, NEA, Valar, 8VC) and trusted by major carriers, Bestow is powered by a team that moves with precision, purpose, and heart. If you want to help reimagine a centuries-old industry with lasting impact, join us. Bestow offers flexible remote/hybrid work, meaningful benefits, equity, and substantial growth opportunities. Bestow uses E-Verify to confirm the employment eligibility of all newly hired employees. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, please visit E-Verify.gov http://e-verify.gov. ABOUT THE TEAM The IPC (Implementation & Platform Configuration) Engineering team powers the digital life insurance enrollment experience that Bestow's carrier partners rely on. You'll work alongside Product Managers, Underwriters, and external partners to build and operate the modular services — written in Python, Go, and Java — that sit at the core of Bestow's platform. The team integrates across Bestow's service landscape using gRPC, REST, and async messaging, all running on Kubernetes in Google Cloud Platform. As a Staff Software Engineer, you'll set technical direction for the team, drive architectural decisions, and own the reliability and scalability of IPC's systems as Bestow onboards new carrier partners. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Own the technical architecture for IPC services, making design decisions that balance speed of delivery with long-term maintainability - Design, build, and operate backend services using Python + PostgreSQL, Go, and a Java-based Drools rules engine - Lead cross-team technical initiatives — coordinate with other Bestow engineering teams to plan and execute integration work across the platform - Drive platform capabilities that scale with Bestow's growing partner ecosystem — new carrier onboardings, product launches, and configuration flexibility - Mentor engineers on the team through code review, design review, and pairing — raise the technical bar without bottlenecking delivery - Ensure production reliability: define SLOs, improve observability, and share on-call responsibility for IPC workloads - Use agentic AI coding tools as a core part of your workflow and help the team adopt effective AI-assisted development practices - Communicate technical decisions, trade-offs, and status clearly in writing — the team is remote-first and async-heavy WHO YOU ARE - 8+ years of professional backend software development experience; you've operated at the Staff or Senior level before - Strong proficiency in Go and Python; Java experience is a plus - Deep experience with distributed systems, microservices, and API design (Protocol Buffers, OpenAPI) - Comfortable with PostgreSQL or other relational databases at scale - Hands-on with cloud infrastructure — Kubernetes, Docker, GCP (or equivalent) - Proven track record building, deploying, and troubleshooting production services end-to-end - You seek out problems before they find you — proactively identifying risks, proposing solutions, and driving them to completion - You write maintainable, well-tested software and hold yourself and your peers to a high quality bar - Demonstrated experience with agentic AI coding tools (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot) integrated into your daily workflow — not occasional use, but a deliberate practice TOTAL REWARDS At Bestow, we’re proud to be awarded for our team members, innovative products, and culture. Our standard benefits include: - Competitive salary and equity based on role - Policies and managers that support work/life balance, like our flexible paid time off and parental leave programs - 100% paid-premium option for medical, dental, and vision insurance - Lifestyle stipend to support your physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing - Flexible work-from-home policy and open to remote - Remote and WFH options, as well as a beautiful, state-of-the-art office in Dallas’ Deep Ellum, for those who prefer an office setting - Employee-led diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives Recent Employer Awards include: - Best Place for Working Parents 2023 + 2024 + 2025 - Great Place to Work Certified, 2022 + 2023 + 2024 + 2025 - Built In Best Places to Work, 2022 + 2023 + 2025 - Fortune’s Best Workplaces in Texas 2022 + 2023 - Fortune’s Best Workplaces in Financial Services and Insurance 2022 + 2023 + 2024 We value diversity at Bestow. The company will hire, recruit, and promote regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, pregnancy or maternity, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable law. We understand the importance of creating a safe and comfortable work environment and encourage individualism and authenticity in every team member. Thanks for considering a job at Bestow!