Founding Staff Backend Developer, IOT & Data

Also.

Also.

Software Engineering
Palo Alto, CA, USA
USD 220k-255k / year
Posted on May 15, 2025

About ALSO

We’re ALSO, an electric mobility company originally conceived as a part of Rivian. We’re a passionate team of builders, dreamers, doers and innovators, focused on creating entirely new (not to mention, innovative and delightful) vertically integrated, small EVs designed to meet the global mobility challenges of today and tomorrow. Our mission is to inspire everyone to ride ALSO—replacing many local car, truck and SUV miles with ones on vehicles that are more affordable, more enjoyable and 10-50x more efficient.

As a founding member of the ALSO backend team, you will have greenfield opportunities to design and implement the core infrastructure that delivers an excellent customer experience on ALSO's flagship connected EVs. You’ll drive the architectural foundation for connected EVs—from secure data ingest to product-facing APIs—and define how software gets built at ALSO. You balance speed and rigor, know how to scale systems and teams, and thrive in fast-paced, 0→1 environments. The systems you build will power core product features and lay the groundwork for future analytics and fleet intelligence.

What you will do:

  • Architect and build backend systems to support secure, scalable IoT infrastructure for a fleet of connected EVs.

  • Own core cloud infrastructure: data pipelines, API design, event handling, observability, and deployment workflows.

  • Develop customer-facing features and internal analytics for mobile-connected devices using device telemetry and cloud-side algorithms.

  • Embed security and privacy into the platform from day one, including device authentication, OTA pipeline integrity, and customer data governance

  • Design systems for high availability and geographic redundancy, ensuring reliability across global deployments

  • Implement data and API integrations with external services and partner platforms

  • Ensure production readiness with automated testing, performance monitoring, and deployment safety

  • Collaborate with firmware, mobile, and product teams to define clean, maintainable API contracts

  • Manage external agencies to scale team capacity

  • Help grow a world-class backend team through mentorship, hiring input, and engineering best practices.

What you will bring:

  • 8+ yrs building and scaling back-end systems, including at least one experience with the full lifecycle of an IOT product.

  • Proven ability to design, ship, and operate production systems from scratch.

  • Experience with AWS (e.g. Lambda/ECS, DynamoDB, Aurora, Kinesis, S3, IAM).

  • Strong knowledge of API design (REST/GraphQL), event-driven systems, schema design, and data exchange (gRPC).

  • Experience with authentication/authorization protocols (OAuth2, OID, JWT, SAML, mTLS).

  • Familiarity with IoT protocols (MQTT, CoAP), device lifecycle management, and telemetry pipelines.

Why ALSO.

We’re passionate about helping the world find a better way to get there—wherever it is you’re headed.

We’ve located in the heart of Silicon Valley and have brought together a world-class team from some of the biggest brands in the technology, automotive, cycling, outdoor recreation and retail spaces.

Together we’re working hands-on to imagine, design and build an entirely new solution to a global set of transportation challenges.

The salary for this position ranges from $220,000 to $255,000 per year, depending on experience and qualifications.

Perks and Benefits

  • Robust health coverage. Excellent health, dental and vision insurance covered up to 100% by ALSO with FSA & HSA options.

  • One Medical membership and dedicated insurance advocates.

  • Rich fertility and family building benefits with Progyny.

  • Flexible time off.

  • 401(k) match.