Job Details

Senior Backend Developer

Salary Range: $150,000-$250,000/year (Range shown is for U.S.-based employees. Compensation outside the U.S. is adjusted fairly based on your country's cost of living. You can explore how we calculate this here:

Equity Range: 0.10%-0.20%

Location: San Francisco, CA (Hybrid) OR Remote

Job Type: Full-Time (SF) OR Contract (Remote)

Experience: 3+ years

Visa: US Citizenship/Visa required for SF; N/A for Remote

About Firecrawl

Firecrawl is the easiest way to extract data from the web. Developers use us to reliably convert URLs into LLM-ready markdown or structured data with a single API call. In just a year, we've hit millions in ARR and 50k+ GitHub stars by building the fastest way for developers to get LLM-ready data.

Previously, we built Mendable, one of the first commercially available "chat with your data" applications. We sold to companies like MongoDB, Coinbase, Snapchat, and more. To do this, we spent a surprising amount of time building reliable infrastructure for getting clean data from the web. When we started to see our founding friends rebuilding the same thing, we thought we might be on to something.

Why Firecrawl

• Technical ownership - Lead critical browser technology and infrastructure
• Real impact - Directly shape how our browser stack drives our entire product
• High velocity - Rapid iteration and deployment of your work
• Small team, big ambition - Collaborate closely with founders, influencing key decisions and future directions

About the Role

We're looking for a Senior Software Engineer with deep experience in building scalable, reliable backend systems. You'll work on the core services that make Firecrawl the go-to API for clean, structured web data. If you thrive in fast-moving environments, care deeply about clean abstractions, and love building high-performance systems, you'll fit right in.

What You'll Do

• Design, build, and maintain Firecrawl's API layer (TypeScript, Express, Rust)
• Optimize and scale our PostgreSQL-backed data models for speed and reliability
• Implement robust job queues, caching layers, and credit metering logic
• Deploy and manage services in Kubernetes (GKE) with CI/CD
• Improve monitoring, observability, and fault tolerance across our stack
• Collaborate with the infra, browser, and product teams to bring new features to life
• Help evolve our architecture to support 10x more scale and usage

Who You Are

• 5+ years of experience building production-grade backend systems
• Expert in TypeScript, Node.js, Express, Rust, and PostgreSQL
• Comfortable designing APIs and working across services
• Experience deploying and scaling apps in Kubernetes
• Familiar with Redis, job queues, rate limiting, and background task processing
• Enjoy working autonomously and pushing projects from idea to launch
• Pragmatic, fast-moving, and excited about working on a large scale system

Bonus Points

• Experience scaling queue-based APIs under high traffic
• Familiarity with distributed systems and event-driven architectures
• Past work on developer platforms or scraping tools
• Open-source contributions
• Previous startup experience or ex-founder

What it Means to Join Firecrawl

• High Leverage - Your processes directly amplify our growth.
• Autonomy - Own your domain; we care about outcomes, not hours.
• Remote-First Culture - Work at our new SF office, while collaborating with our remote team.
• Growth Opportunity - Early equity and a role that scales with the company.
• Creative Freedom - Experiment with new features and systems. If it works, we run with it.

Benefits & Perks

• Salary that makes sense - $150,000-$250,000 (U.S.-based), based on impact, not tenure
• Own a piece - 0.10%-0.30% equity in what you're helping build
• Full coverage, no red tape (SF Only) - Medical, dental, and vision plans that cover stuff
• Parental leave - 12 weeks fully paid, for moms and dads
• Take a break (seriously) - Unlimited PTO, minimum of 3 weeks off
• Gear up - Get the tools you need to do your best work, no approvals circus
• Wellness stipend - Use it for the gym, therapy, or whatever keeps you human
• SF HQ perks - Snacks, drinks, lunches, and the occasional chaotic energy
• Pet insurance (SF Only) - Because fur babies are family too
• Team offsites - A change of scenery, minus the trust falls
• Sabbatical - 3 paid months off after 4 years, do something fun and new

Interview Process

1. Application Review - Send us your stuff, and a quick note on why you're excited
2. Interview (~30 min) with Alex, our AI Interviewer
3. Intro Chat (~25 min) - Quick alignment call with the CTO
4. Technical Interview (~1 hr) - Tackle a small challenge
5. Interview with Founders (~30 min) - Culture, vision, and long-term fit
6. Paid Work Trial (1-2 weeks) - Work on something real with us
7. Decision - We move fast

If you've ever wanted to own a product-critical system and build alongside founders, this is your moment. Apply now and let's talk.