Software Engineer, Backend
Gamma
San Francisco, CA · Posted May 21, 2026
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Where San Francisco, CA ranks
Where San Francisco, CA placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #1Best cities for security jobs316 openings · of 20
- #1Best cities for technology jobs7,178 openings · of 100
- #1Best cities for financial services pay after cost of living$173k · of 33
- #1Best cities for entry-level jobs that want AI skills35% · of 100
- #1Best cities for entry-level jobs that want AI skills in the West Coast35% · of 54
- #1Cities with the most jobs that do not need a four-year degree in the West Coast902 jobs · of 47
Rankings about engineering jobs
- Best cities for software and engineering jobs #1 San Francisco (3,412 openings)
- Best cities for engineering pay after cost of living #1 San Mateo ($216k)
- Most requested AI skills in engineering jobs #1 AI tools in daily work (6.1%)
- AI tools named most often in engineering jobs #1 Claude (1.7%)
- Employers with the most engineering jobs #1 Amazon (2,992 roles)
Pay compared with the market
This listing does not state pay. Across 471 open software engineer listings that state pay, the middle half runs $160,000 to $239,500 and the median is $197,500.
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How AI is used in this kind of work
Among software developers, AI is already used for some of the tasks. Measured exposure for software developers: 29% (some).
Share of this job’s tasks that AI is already used for at work, from real usage. It is not a forecast of job loss, and a low number means no use seen yet. Source: Anthropic Economic Index.
Skills this job asks for
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About the job
About the role
You'll build and scale the backend systems that power millions users creating content every day on Gamma. This role is about solving real distributed systems challenges at scale while maintaining the performance and reliability users expect from a modern AI-powered product. You'll work across the full stack, shipping features that directly impact how people create and share their ideas.
While this role is backend focused, you'll work across the entire product with our frontend, product, and design teams. Our full TypeScript stack is built on modern technologies including React, Node.js, PostgreSQL, Redis, and cutting-edge AI models.
Our team has a strong in-office culture and works in person 4–5 days per week in San Francisco. We love working together to stay creative and connected, with flexibility to work from home when focus matters most.
What you'll do
• Scale backend systems to hundreds of millions of users while maintaining high performance and availability
• Build and optimize APIs that power real-time collaborative editing and AI content generation
• Design and implement distributed systems that handle massive scale with reliability
• Ship features across the full stack, working closely with frontend engineers to deliver polished experiences
• Architect solutions for complex technical challenges in areas like data consistency, caching, and query optimization
• Collaborate with product and design to turn ideas into production-ready features
What you'll bring
• 3+ years building production backend systems with strong fundamentals in distributed systems, databases, and API design
• Deep proficiency in TypeScript/Node.js or similar backend languages, with eagerness to work in our TypeScript stack
• Experience scaling systems to handle millions of users and high throughput workloads
• Strong understanding of PostgreSQL, Redis, or similar database technologies
• Passion for building APIs, scaling complex systems, and creating excellent web applications
• Curiosity and attitude that matches your technical knowledge
• Prior experience working with websockets, streaming, or scaling inference workloads (Nice to have)
Compensation range:
The base salary for this full-time position, which spans multiple internal levels depending on qualifications, ranges between $180K - $310K plus benefits & equity.
Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including but not limited to experience and expertise in the requirements listed above.
If you're interested in this role but you don't meet every requirement, we encourage you to apply anyway! We're always excited about meeting great people.