Staff Software Engineer, Backend

At Socure, we’re on a mission—to verify 100% of good identities in real time and eliminate identity fraud from the internet.

Using predictive analytics and advanced machine learning trained on billions of signals to power RiskOS™, Socure has created the most accurate identity verification and fraud prevention platform in the world. Trusted by thousands of leading organizations—from top banks and fintechs to government agencies—we solve real, high-impact problems at scale. Come join us!

About the Role

We are looking for a Staff Backend Engineer to join our Identity Graph team and lead the development of our next-generation Entity Resolution API. This critical component of our platform powers entity linking through advanced search and graph-based intelligence. You’ll work at the intersection of large-scale data processing, real-time search infrastructure, and machine learning-based ranking systems.

You’ll be responsible for designing and building both streaming and batch data pipelines that feed into a low-latency Search Cluster (ElasticSearch/Vespa), and for developing scalable, cloud-native APIs on top of this cluster that deliver high-accuracy, high-speed entity linking results. You will collaborate cross-functionally with Data Science, Infrastructure, and Product teams to design scalable APIs, build robust pipelines, and ensure reliable, observable, and performant distributed systems.

What You’ll Do

• Lead architecture and development of high-performance, cloud-native Entity Resolution APIs.

• Design and implement batch and streaming data pipelines using tools like Kafka, SQS, and Spark to build and update the underlying search index.

• Build and maintain low-latency search APIs powered by ElasticSearch or Vespa to support real-time entity linking.

• Collaborate with data scientists to integrate and deploy ranking models to improve search result quality.

• Own the end-to-end lifecycle of applications deployed on Kubernetes, from development and CI/CD to monitoring and scaling.

• Conduct performance tuning and debugging of search systems under high throughput and low-latency requirements.

• Develop tools and metrics to benchmark search quality and system performance.

• Partner with cross-functional teams in data science, infrastructure, and product to deliver reliable, scalable solutions.

• System Design: Lead design discussions and planning for backend services that incorporate model inference, SQL/NoSQL and Graph databases.

What We’re Looking For

• 8+ years of backend software engineering experience, with 1+ years in a staff/principal-level role.

• Expertise in search technologies like ElasticSearch or Vespa, including deployment, tuning, and query optimization.

• Strong cloud-native experience, especially with AWS services like S3, SQS, Lambda, and Kafka.

• Proven ability to design, build, and maintain distributed systems handling high-volume data streams and real-time requirements.

• Deep knowledge of Kubernetes-based application development and deployment.

• Strong proficiency in one or more backend programming languages (Java, Scala, Go, Python, etc.).

• Experience benchmarking and deploying machine learning models (ranking, reranking, classification) into production search pipelines.

• Strong problem-solving, communication, and collaboration skills.

• Familiarity with SQL/NoSQL and Graph databases

Bonus Skills

• Experience with knowledge graphs, entity resolution, or identity data.

• Prior work with real-time event processing frameworks.

• Hands-on experience integrating GraphQL APIs over complex data systems.

• Exposure to privacy, security, or compliance requirements in identity or fintech environments.

• Knowledge of Graph Databases and Open Cypher Queries

• Familiarity with data pipeline frameworks (e.g., Apache Beam, Spark Structured Streaming) is a plus.

Socure is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity of all kinds at our company. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

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