Backend Engineer, Models
Job description
About the role
The role designs and operates the data interface that powers model training, evaluation, and real-time inference for networking telemetry. It ensures the Models team can access consistent, versioned data across batch and streaming workflows. The position collaborates closely with modelers to ship scalable, reproducible pipelines that turn raw network data into actionable model inputs.
Software engineers turn product ideas into working code. Engineers work in small teams, review each other's work, and ship in small batches. Most teams follow agile practices such as sprints and daily standups. Engineers also write tests, fix bugs, and improve performance. The field values clear communication as much as technical skill. Engineers spend part of every week on planning, code review, and debugging, not just writing new code. The ability to explain a technical decision in plain words separates strong engineers from the rest.
Key facts
What you'll do
Backwards compatibility and feature versioning are maintained as evolving schemas ensure continuity across model development cycles. Scalable pipelines ingest, transform, and serve petabytes of data using Kafka, Postgres, and Clickhouse to support training and real-time inference. CI/CD workflows coordinate API evolution with changes in the underlying data schema to keep model experiments aligned with production contracts. The team enforces smart data processing in the data layer so downstream code remains minimal and focused on orchestration. Endpoint performance is owned and optimized to satisfy real-time serving constraints across production deployments.
Requirements
Experience designing large-scale data infrastructure across batch and streaming modes is required to build robust pipelines for networking telemetry. Deep thinking about schema design, versioning, and data quality ensures consistency and reliability for model training and evaluation. Systems must be simple to use and hard to misuse so that models and analysts can rely on clear, well-versioned interfaces. Comfort working in early-stage environments and building from scratch is necessary to iterate quickly on data infrastructure for autonomous networks.
Practical notes
The role is based in San Francisco and operates full-time. The team works with Kafka, Postgres, Clickhouse, Python, Go, AWS, and Azure to deliver reliable data platforms. Typical interview steps
Hiring for engineering roles usually starts with a recruiter screen, followed by one or two technical rounds. Candidates often solve a coding problem, discuss past projects, and answer system design questions. Some loops include a take-home task. Final rounds typically cover team fit and give candidates a chance to ask questions. Interviewers look for how you break down an unfamiliar problem, not just whether you reach the answer. Practicing a few problems aloud and reviewing your own past projects are the best preparation.
Career growth
Engineering careers usually progress from individual contributor to senior, staff, and principal levels. Some engineers move into management and lead teams of five to twenty people. Others stay on the technical track. Growth follows demonstrated impact, not tenure alone. A typical engineering ladder has clear levels with defined expectations for scope, quality, and mentorship. Moving up usually requires owning outcomes end to end rather than completing assigned tickets.
Questions to ask
Useful questions for the interview: what a typical week looks like, how work is assigned, what tools the team uses, and how feedback works. Asking how the role has changed recently and what the team wishes it had known when joining is also reasonable. Questions about the manager's priorities are especially valued.
About the company
Meter is building the modern networking infrastructure that businesses like Lyft and Reddit rely on to stay connected. As an Enterprise Sales Engineer, you will partner with our Enterprise Sales team to bring better networks to more customers by using your technical expertise to win over the hearts and minds of IT and network engineers alike.