Staff Software Engineer, Backend - Commerce Platform

The Role

We are looking for a Staff Software Engineer to join the Commerce Platform 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 financial systems that power how healthcare is accessed and sustained.

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.

What You'll Do

• Build robust, and scalable backend capabilities using Python and FastAPI, supporting critical commerce domains like payments, pricing, and invoicing
• Lead cross-functional technical efforts — collaborating closely with product managers, designers, and engineers from adjacent teams to ensure alignment and technical integrity across boundaries
• Drive engineering excellence through best practices in testing, monitoring, observability, and performance optimization
• Define and maintain SLIs/SLOs in collaboration with product, infra and other development teams
• Participate in on-call rotations to ensure reliability of commerce systems

What You’ll Bring to the Team

• 7 - 10+ years professional backend software development experience
• Proficient in Python (preferred - we have some language flexibility!), relational databases, and frameworks like Django or FastAPI, with hands-on experience in metrics instrumentation and data-driven performance tuning using tools like Datadog
• Proven experience building and maintaining high-scale backend systems, ideally in commerce, fintech, or healthcare settings
• Deep understanding of distributed systems—data consistency, communication patterns, and service boundaries—backed by hands-on experience building and maintaining high-traffic production systems
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to lead cross-functional technical projects
• A sharp focus on quality and risk—you move with urgency while safeguarding against issues like double charges, misbilling, or inconsistent payment states

Bonus Skills

• Experience in telehealth or other highly regulated industries
• Deep familiarity with breaking down monolithic systems into well-defined domains