Staff Backend Engineer, Spark

We take into account an individual’s qualifications, skillset and experience when determining salary. The salary range listed in the job posting reflects the new hire salary range across levels that would be applicable to the position and Los Angeles location. This role is eligible for health insurance, life insurance, 401k contribution, paid time off including vacation and sick leave and any other tax-reportable benefits. The final salary will be commensurate with the candidates final level and represents the base salary only.

• Health insurance coverage including medical, dental, and vision

• Competitive salary

• Stock options

• Company paid life insurance

• 20 paid vacation days a year, as well as paid holidays

• Flexible work schedule

• Matching 401k

• FSA/DCA accounts

• Generous family leave policies

• Annual bonuses

Lightspark is building open payments for the Internet—always-on payment solutions powered by Bitcoin, the only open, neutral network for moving value. With enterprise tools like Connect, UMA, and Spark, businesses can send and receive money instantly, securely, and at a fraction of the cost, anytime, anywhere. Lightspark is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, but serves the world.

We launched Spark (spark.money), a Bitcoin-native Layer 2 for payments and settlement that delivers the fastest, simplest, and cheapest rails in crypto while enabling native, scalable, self-custodial assets like BTC and stablecoins. This is a rare opportunity to join a brand-new L2 for Bitcoin, work on infrastructure for our fastest growing product with top tier customers, and build the future of scalable Bitcoin payments.

As a Staff Backend Engineer for Spark, you will combine your deep technical skills, architectural vision, and leadership to help us build and scale cutting-edge distributed systems. We are looking for people who thrive in high-intensity environments, have passion for solving complex problems with an early team, want to directly shape the future of world-changing payments infrastructure, as well as have fun along the way.

WHAT YOU’LL BE DOING:

• Design, build, and scale distributed backend services for the Spark

• Own architecture for highly available, low-latency systems that handle real-time Bitcoin transactions at global scale

• Develop a rich services layer and SDKs to support new user-facing applications and use cases on Lightning

• Build frameworks for deep data collection and analysis to continuously improve system performance and reliability

• Extend and enhance Lightning functionality for new markets and audiences

• Mentor and coach junior engineers, setting a high bar for technical excellence

• Collaborate with product, TPMs, and cross-functional teams to drive roadmaps and execution

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR:

• 8+ years of infrastructure or backend engineering

• Experience designing and building scalable distributed systems

• Experience writing high quality, well tested code

• Ability to operate with high intensity and ownership in a fast-moving environment

• Experience communicating and collaborating across technical and other cross functional teams

• CS degree, or equivalent is ideal but not required. We appreciate and acknowledge that some of the best talent comes from non-traditional backgrounds.

• Strong track record of technical leadership in driving architecture decisions, guiding teams, and delivering complex projects

• Experience using data to influence decisions

• Familiarity with off-the-shelf coding/deployment solutions (i.e. Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, etc.)

• Experience programming in languages such as Python, Rust, C++ is preferred

Lightspark is on a mission to build an open payment protocol for the Internet at scale and therefore we’re committed to creating a more inclusive and diverse workplace to reflect the customers we serve. We welcome interest from individuals of all backgrounds and levels of experience who share our mission. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.

We will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of the State of California Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring.

Compensation Range: $240K – $280K