About the job
About the Role
We are seeking a highly skilled Senior or Staff-level Software Engineer to become part of our dynamic Backend Platform team.
This team is dedicated to developing and maintaining Hex's foundational compute platform, which is the core engine behind all code execution, SQL querying, and data processing within the Hex application. Our platform supports everything from the essential notebook interface and published applications to the sophisticated data functionalities demanded by our AI agents.
Our dual mission is to create a compute platform that is not only incredibly user-friendly and easy to develop on but also exceptionally fast and efficient. Engineers on this team thrive at the rewarding intersection of systems architecture, API design, and advanced performance optimization.
What You Will Do
As a member of the Backend Platform team, you will engage in projects that involve high technical complexity across the entire stack, from our backend data systems to the frontend of Hex’s collaborative notebook interface.
Here are some of the exciting projects you might work on:
- Leveraging DuckDB to facilitate seamless data interoperability between Python and SQL written by our users or AI agents.
- Creating intelligent caching systems to enhance customer data query performance.
- Implementing a graph-based dependency framework to optimize multi-step execution plans.
- Instrumenting complex, multi-language systems to identify and resolve performance bottlenecks.
- Developing visualizations for the product to assist users in understanding the performance characteristics of their code.
About You
- 6+ years of engineering experience with complex, data-driven systems or applications.
- Expertise in Python, SQL, Jupyter kernels, and/or data warehousing systems.
- Strong familiarity with industry trends in data processing, databases, and efficient data architectures.
- A passion for delving into intricate codebases and designing elegant abstractions that enhance correctness and developer productivity.
- A relentless desire to analyze and optimize every millisecond of performance.
- A strategic mindset that aligns with business and product goals while maintaining a balance between speed and engineering excellence.
- Experience working in a remote-first environment and possessing strong communication skills in that context.
This position is fully remote anywhere within the US Eastern timezone, with the option to work from our NYC office.

