Backend Engineer

Position Title: Backend Engineer

Office Location: Broomfield, CO | Local candidates only

Work Schedule: Full-time, 40 hours/week | In-office Wednesdays; additional days as business needs require

Work Authorization: Must be authorized to work in the US without sponsorship, now or in the future

Reports to: Director, Engineering

Salary Range: $120,000 - $140,000 annually

About IKE

Every utility pole carries something essential: power, fiber, and the connections communities depend on. We're ikeGPS, the PoleOS Company, and we're working to become the standard for collecting, managing, and analyzing pole and overhead asset information. Electric utilities, communications companies, and their engineering partners rely on our solutions to design, construct, and inspect overhead infrastructure. It's an industry that flies under the radar, and we're proud to help build the power and communications infrastructure of the future.

IKE is publicly traded on the New Zealand (NZX) and Australian (ASX) stock exchanges under the ticker IKE. We're a collaborative team, with our US headquarters in Broomfield, Colorado, offices in Chelsea, Alabama, and Wellington, New Zealand, and colleagues working across the US. We're guided by Manaakitanga, a te reo Mori word for caring for and uplifting others, which we live as "we rise by lifting others." Our values shape how we work: we keep things simple, speak openly, and bring ingenuity to every challenge.

The Role

As a Backend Engineer on the PoleOS team, you'll own services end to end: design, build, ship to production, and keep them running. The work is mostly TypeScript and NestJS, with some Python, on AWS.

Your work splits between building new product features and making the platform faster, safer, and more reliable as more customers come on board. We work in sprints, and you'll carry work from a written user story through code, tests, release, and the runbook. You'll also work directly with customer user groups, so what you build is shaped by the people who use it.

Why This Role

• End-to-end ownership: you design it, build it, ship it, and run it. No handoff to someone else's queue.
• Real scale: large, versioned engineering datasets and multi-customer systems where data isolation and performance actually matter.
• AI-forward engineering: agentic AI tools are part of how this team works day to day, and you'll help shape the practices and standards around them.
• Visible impact: on a focused team, what you ship reaches utilities and communications companies quickly.

Key Responsibilities & Expected Outcomes

• Design, build, and run backend APIs and services used by our web applications and partners.
• Own data models and storage for large, versioned engineering datasets.
• Embed agentic AI tools into development workflows, and help set the team practices and standards that improve delivery quality and engineering efficiency.
• Build secure multi-customer features, including authentication, permissions, and data isolation.
• Build integrations that move data between PoleOS and other IKE products.
• Find and fix performance and reliability problems across services and databases.
• Contribute to shared libraries, CI/CD, and infrastructure as code alongside the platform team.
• Meet with customer user groups and representatives, and apply their feedback to improve application usability.

Outcome: Work in the Agile backlog is delivered on time and to a high standard of quality, security, and efficiency, with stakeholders and teammates kept current on progress.

Where and How You'll Work

• Work Location: Broomfield, Colorado (Interlocken Business Park). Hybrid, with Wednesdays onsite and additional onsite days as business needs evolve. Lunch is on us when we’re together on Wednesdays. Employees must live within commuting distance of the Broomfield office; relocation assistance is not available.

• Hours: Our teams span US time zones from Eastern to Pacific, and our New Zealand engineering team is 18 to 20 hours ahead of Colorado. Some early morning or evening meetings help us stay connected.

• Travel: About 5 to 10% for company meetings, conferences, and team collaboration.

• Work Authorization: This position is not eligible for employer-sponsored work authorization. Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for current or future employer-sponsored work authorization.

What You'll Bring

Required

• Strong Node.js and TypeScript. NestJS experience is a plus but not required.
• Hands-on AWS: you've deployed and debugged containerized services, not just read about them.
• Solid relational database skills, including schema design, migrations, and query tuning in PostgreSQL.
• Real experience with authentication and authorization: JWTs, OIDC, and designing who-can-do-what.
• Experience with distributed systems and event-driven architecture.
• Experience with modern API technologies and CI/CD pipelines.
• Working Python: enough to read, debug, and extend a production service.
• Hands-on experience using agentic AI coding tools (such as Claude Code, Cursor, or GitHub Copilot agent mode) in day-to-day development.
• Strong software development fundamentals, with an understanding of SOLID and CUPID principles.
• You test what you build, and can explain how you'd know it works in production.
• Able to communicate clearly on complex issues, both verbally and in writing.
• 3+ years of production development experience, with at least three years in relevant technologies.
• Bachelor's degree in Information Science, Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent work experience in a technical position.

Preferred

• Multi-tenant SaaS experience.
• Geospatial data and GIS processing (PostGIS, ltree).
• Experience designing, building, or shipping AI agent capabilities in a production application or service.
• Performance work: load testing, profiling, and caching.
• Observability tools (logging, monitoring, tracing).
• Data pipeline patterns and workflow orchestration tools (Airflow, Dagster).
• Agentic frameworks (LangChain, RAG).
• Auth0, GitHub Actions, and Terragrunt.
• Utility, telecom, or engineering software experience.

Pay and Benefits

The base pay range for this role is $120,000 - $140,000 annually. Final pay depends on skills, experience, and qualifications.

We take care of our people with a comprehensive benefits package, including:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) with a 4% company match, plus pre-tax and Roth options
• Company-paid basic life insurance
• Paid time off and paid holidays
• Employee assistance program

• Catered lunch on Wednesday onsite days

Benefits are subject to change. Full details are shared during the offer process.

Application Deadline

This position will remain open until November 30 or when filled.

Equal Opportunity Employer

ikeGPS is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We will provide reasonable accommodations during the hiring process if requested.