Senior / Staff Backend Engineer, Maps
Radar · New York
About this role
**About Radar** Radar (https://radar.com) is the global leader in geolocation, with geofencing SDKs, maps APIs, and AI-enabled solutions for marketing, fraud, and operations teams. **Why Radar?** - Trusted by top companies—from high-growth startups to the Fortune 500 - Scale: processing **1B+ API calls/day** from hundreds of millions of devices - Well-resourced: **$85.5M** raised (including Accel and Insight Partners) - High-performance, entrepreneurial culture - New office in **Flatiron, Manhattan (NYC)**; named a **top 10** best place to work in NYC by Crain’s --- ## **About the role (Senior / Staff Backend Engineer, Maps)** Radar is looking for a **Maps Product Engineer** to strengthen the **data foundation** behind Radar’s **geocoding platform**. You’ll operate at scale (daily traffic **1B+ API calls/day**, ~**15,000 requests/second**) and own systems that bring many sources of location data together into something **reliable, accurate, and fresh**—with opportunities to apply **AI** to enrichment and scaling. This is a broad role with deep ownership across the geocoding stack—from **ingestion to serving**. **Based in NYC HQ.** --- ## **How we work** - Many engineers are former technical co-founders or former Radar interns - Engineers typically fit one of two molds: - **Staff-level expertise** in one stack, or - **“Multi-Stack”** (not limited to frontend/backend—may include Mobile or Data) - We value shipping fast and talking to customers - Planning happens in small groups on **Mondays** (using **Linear**) - We work in-person in NYC HQ as the fastest way to get things done --- ## **Tech stack** - **HorizonDB**: geospatial database written in **Rust** powering geocoding - https://radar.com/blog/high-performance-geocoding-in-rust - https://radar.com/blog/building-horizondb-in-production - Indexing: **Tantivy**, **RocksDB**, **FSTs** - ML models for query understanding and ranking - Data pipelines: **Scala/Python** on **Airflow** (integrating commercial + open data) - API layer: **Node.js + TypeScript** - Data/infra: **MongoDB**, **S3/Athena**, **Redis** - Deployment: **AWS** via **Kubernetes on EKS** using **Terraform** - On-call rotation (most engineers) - Sponsors: **OpenStreetMaps**, **MapLibre**, **OpenAddresses** --- ## **How we use AI** - Engineers choose AI tools (e.g., **Claude**, **Codex**) - We’re actively building **Claude skills** (e.g., taught it to debug HorizonDB) - Code changes and PRs are reviewed by knowledgeable engineers; AI tools also review PRs - AI usage varies by engineer, but most use it daily/weekly - We’re excited about AI while maintaining strong coding standards --- ## **What you’ll do** - Own the **data foundation** under the geocoder: modeling, consistency, and reliable serving across **Scala, Python, and Rust** - Build pipelines integrating many commercial + open data sources to expand **coverage and quality** (US + international) - Bring **LLMs/agents** into the data layer for enrichment, labeling, and quality—using guardrails to keep outputs trustworthy - Work across the geocoding stack as needed (serving path in HorizonDB through the Node.js/TypeScript API) - Power systems handling **1B+ API calls/day** - Talk to customers/prospects, incorporate feedback, and help make them successful --- ## **You should** - Be a **generalist engineer first** (not tied to a single stack) - Enjoy talking to customers/prospects and enabling success - Be deeply curious and persistent with hard prob
Listing freshness
CronJobs last confirmed this listing 1d ago. If its source stops confirming the opening for seven days, this page is removed from active inventory.