Software Engineer (Backend)

As a Senior Software Engineer Backend at NetBird, you will play a key role in building and scaling the backend of our open source, peer-to-peer networking platform. You'll work on high-throughput distributed systems that power secure connectivity for users and organizations around the world.

What you'll do

• Design, build, and scale high-throughput backend services and APIs in Go that power NetBird's globally distributed networking platform.
• Own data modeling and database performance optimization — design schemas, optimize queries, and ensure our systems scale under load.
• Implement observability best practices (metrics, logs, tracing) and contribute to incident response and postmortems.
• Take end-to-end ownership of features: from design and implementation to deployment, monitoring, and iteration.
• Collaborate with networking and platform engineers on routing, connectivity, and overall system performance.
• Engage with the open source community — debug user-reported issues, participate in GitHub discussions, and care about the quality of your work.

What you'll need

• 5+ years of professional experience building backend systems in Go or similar systems languages.
• Proven experience building and operating high-scale distributed systems (e.g. high-throughput APIs, real-time platforms, or infrastructure tools).
• Strong in data modeling and database performance optimization: schema design, indexing, query tuning, scaling databases under load.
• Solid understanding of networking concepts (IP, routing, auth protocols like OAuth2/OIDC).
• End-to-end ownership mindset: design, implement, deploy, monitor, iterate.
• Thrives in high-autonomy, fast-paced environments. Comfortable working independently and proactively solving problems.

Nice to have

• Experience with WireGuard, VPNs, or peer-to-peer networking technologies (STUN, TURN, ICE, NAT traversal).
• Background in security-focused systems or networking products.
• Experience with gRPC and REST-based APIs.
• Familiarity with cloud infrastructure and Kubernetes.
• Open source contributions, especially in Go or networking/infrastructure projects.

What they offer

• Competitive salary and equity incentives.
• Rapid growth opportunity at the forefront of the Zero Trust security revolution.
• Meaningful ownership and space to build an extraordinary product.
• Berlin office with flexible work arrangement (4 days office / 1 day flexible).