Staff Backend Engineer

Essential Skills:
Java Proficiency: Excellent Java programming skills, with significant experience in the Spring ecosystem.
Database Proficiency: Commercial experience working with SQL & DB schema design.
Ownership: Work autonomously, own features end-to-end, collaborate directly with PMs, QA, and other engineers.
Distributed Systems: Experience designing and evolving microservices, including service boundaries, API contracts, and resilience when dependencies fail.
Cloud and Containers: Hands-on experience running services with Docker and Kubernetes in AWS or a similar cloud environment.
Reliability and Performance: Ability to diagnose production issues, improve observability, and make sound trade-offs around latency, scalability, and availability.
Technical Leadership: Ability to set technical direction, make pragmatic architecture decisions, and raise engineering standards across teams.
Soft Skills: Excellent communication in spoken and written English, paired with a product mindset and rigorous attention to detail.
Extra credit if you have:
Experience working with Python, FastAPI and LLM APIs.
Experience working with Voice AI Models.
Experience with Agentic AI workflows for software development.
This role is an excellent growth opportunity for the ideal candidate to develop their experience and career so if you feel you meet most of the requirements and our mission resonates with you, please do apply.
The role is based in our centrally located HCMC office. While you can work from the office five days a week if preferred, our Engineering team can choose to work up to two days a week from home. We also offer a six-week remote-work allowance; for up to six weeks a year, you can work from anywhere in the world (as long as you've got great WiFi and are happy to work with your main office timezone).
Diversity & Inclusion
Our mission is to help everyone talk about everywhere, and we believe diverse perspectives make for a better company and better products too. We strongly encourage applications from underrepresented groups and are committed to equality and inclusivity in our hiring processes and company culture.
Benefits
We offer the following benefits to all permanent employees of what3words:
Competitive salary
Flexible working
6 week remote working (work from anywhere) policy
25 days holiday: plus the option to buy more!
Share options
Private health insurance
Wellbeing Days
Generous parental leave policies
Family friendly policies
Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)
Lunch & learn sessions
Team social budget