[All remote jobs](https://jobicy.com/jobs.md)Open role[![ClickUp logo](https://jobicy.com/data/server-nyc0409/galaxy/mercury/2025/06/cd5be0ef-221.jpg)](https://jobicy.com/company/clickup.md)Remote opportunity at[ClickUp](https://jobicy.com/company/clickup.md) # Staff Backend Engineer, Hierarchy Review the role, location requirements, compensation details, and application process before deciding whether this opportunity fits your next career move. [Apply for this job](#job-application)[View company](https://jobicy.com/company/clickup.md)Share20 Aug 2026Published21Listing views1Application actions19 Sep 2026Apply before Opportunity details ## About this role. AI SummaryClickUp is seeking a Staff Backend Engineer for its Hierarchy Squad, which owns core filesystem and hierarchy services used across the productivity platform. The role focuses on designing, scaling, optimizing, and operating high-throughput distributed backend systems built with Node.js, TypeScript, NestJS, PostgreSQL, Kafka, and AWS. Candidates need 8+ years of SaaS backend experience, deep database and API expertise, and the ability to debug complex production systems. This senior individual-contributor position also requires cross-functional collaboration, technical knowledge sharing, and daily AI fluency. ## Role DNA A quick view of the complexity, pace, ownership and collaboration implied by the job description. ### Job Complexity 5/5EasyHard ### Pace & Pressure 5/5RelaxedFast-paced ### Autonomy Level 5/5GuidedFull ownership ### Communication Load 4/5IndependentCollaborative AI insightThis is a staff-level role supporting tier-1 platform services with demanding reliability, scale, data-modeling, and performance requirements. Success requires strong independent architectural judgment as well as hands-on debugging of complex distributed systems. ## Salary analysis Estimated compensation compared with the broader US market for similar roles. Estimated job medianHighly competitive$225,000US market range$190k–$260k0$286k AI insightThe disclosed yearly compensation range is USD 200,000 to USD 250,000, with a midpoint of USD 225,000. This is competitive for a US-based Staff Backend Engineer working on high-scale distributed SaaS infrastructure; the estimated US market range is USD 190,000 to USD 260,000, depending on location, company stage, scope, and total compensation structure. ## Core skills Skills and capabilities most closely associated with this opportunity. [Backend Engineering](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=Backend%20Engineering.md)[Distributed Systems](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=Distributed%20Systems.md)[Node.js](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=Node.js.md)[TypeScript](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=TypeScript.md)[NestJS](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=NestJS.md)[PostgreSQL](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=PostgreSQL.md)[Kafka](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=Kafka.md)[AWS](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=AWS.md)[Microservices](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=Microservices.md)[Database Optimization](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=Database%20Optimization.md) Cover letter sampleDear ClickUp Hiring Team, I am excited to apply for the Staff Backend Engineer, Hierarchy role. My background building scalable backend services, optimizing relational databases, and designing reliable distributed systems aligns closely with the needs of ClickUp’s core hierarchy platform. I would bring strong hands-on experience with Node.js, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, REST APIs, microservices, and cloud-based operations, along with a methodical approach to performance tuning and production troubleshooting. I also value cross-functional collaboration and mentoring, and would be motivated to help teams build confidently on a dependable shared platform. I am particularly drawn to ClickUp’s AI-native culture and the opportunity to contribute to services that underpin the future of work. Thank you for your consideration. Copy Sample interview questionsHow would you approach diagnosing a PostgreSQL query that has become slow as a hierarchy dataset grows?I would first reproduce the workload and inspect EXPLAIN ANALYZE output to identify sequential scans, costly joins, poor row estimates, lock waits, or sorts spilling to disk. I would validate indexes against actual access patterns, review schema and query shape, and consider pagination, denormalization, partitioning, or caching only after measuring their likely impact. I would then load-test the change and monitor latency, database load, and correctness after release. Describe how you would design a reliable service for managing a large, frequently updated hierarchical filesystem. I would define clear invariants for parent-child relationships, authorization, ordering, deletion, and move operations before choosing storage and APIs. The design would use transactions and constraints for critical integrity, idempotent write operations, well-defined concurrency behavior, and event publication through a durable outbox pattern where downstream processing is required. I would also plan observability, backfills, recovery procedures, and a strategy for safely evolving the hierarchy model at scale. What are the trade-offs of using Kafka in a core backend architecture? Kafka enables durable, scalable asynchronous communication and allows services to evolve with looser coupling. However, it introduces concerns around duplicate delivery, ordering boundaries, schema evolution, replay behavior, consumer lag, and operational complexity. I address these with idempotent consumers, explicit event contracts, monitoring, dead-letter or retry strategies, and careful decisions about which workflows must remain synchronous. How do you balance rapid delivery with reliability when working on a tier-1 service? I break work into small, observable releases and identify the service-level risks before implementation. For high-risk changes, I use automated tests, feature flags, staged rollouts, metrics, and rollback plans, while communicating trade-offs early to product and engineering partners. This enables progress without treating production reliability as an afterthought. How have you raised the technical capability of other engineers while remaining effective as a staff-level individual contributor? I create leverage through architecture reviews, pragmatic documentation, pairing on difficult problems, and reusable patterns rather than taking ownership of every implementation. I explain the reasoning behind technical decisions, encourage engineers to own meaningful components, and provide timely feedback during design and code review. This strengthens team autonomy while maintaining consistent engineering standards. At ClickUp, we’re building the future of work: the first truly converged AI workspace unifying tasks, docs, chat, calendar, and enterprise search, all supercharged by context-driven AI. We are an AI-native company. Every team member is expected to leverage AI daily, and we evaluate AI fluency as part of our hiring process. Join us and help redefine what’s possible. 🚀 Come join the Hierarchy Squad to build and optimize a set of tier 1 services that are at the core of ClickUp’s all-in-one productivity platform! Hierarchy owns the ClickUp filesystem that is at foundation of everything we build. We are searching for passionate engineers with exceptional critical thinking skills and technical prowess to help maintain, develop and scale high throughput services to support the company through accelerated growth. The ideal candidate will find the idea of architecting distributed systems that are reliable and highly performant exciting, has a knack for debugging and writing complex code and is excited by the challenge of building and maintaining a platform that every team in the company integrates with. Our key technologies include Typescript, Postgres, Kafka, NestJS running on Amazon Web Services. If this sounds interesting to you, we’d love to have you join our team! Responsibilities: – Develop and maintain robust, scalable backend systems using Node.js (Express and NestJS). – Collaborate with engineers, designers, and product managers to drive projects forward. – Tune and optimize database queries for maximum efficiency and performance. – Optimize and improve existing code for better performance and user experience. – Troubleshoot and debug issues, ensuring smooth operations. – Share your knowledge and expertise to foster a culture of learning and growth. Requirements: – 8+ years of professional experience building backend services for SaaS products. – Proven track record of building and scaling backend systems. – Expertise in relational database query optimizations (prefer PostgreSQL). – Extensive background working with databases (SQL and NoSQL) and data modeling. – Strong understanding of RESTful API design and implementation. – Experience with agile development methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, etc.). – Familiarity with version control systems like Git. – Excellent problem-solving skills and a passion for tackling challenges. – Strong communication skills, as collaboration is key to our success. – Experience with microservices architecture and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes). Preferred Qualifications: – Familiarity with frontend technologies (Angular, React, Vue). – Professional experience with NodeJs, Express, and NestJS What We Offer: – Competitive salary and benefits package. – Remote work options. – A supportive, dynamic, and fast-paced work environment. – The opportunity to make a meaningful impact on a rapidly growing company. – Opportunities for personal and professional growth. #LI-REMOTE Equal Opportunity Employer ClickUp is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin. Privacy Notice ClickUp collects and processes personal data in accordance with applicable data protection laws. You can find further details by viewing our [Global Candidate Privacy Notice.](https://clickup.com/careers-terms/candidate-privacy-notice) If you are a Philippine Job Applicant, please also see our [Philippine Data Privacy Notice](https://t333.s.clickup-attachments-stg.com/t333/d9a53ce2-6d2c-48cd-84b1-ed4e525f9613/Philippine%20Data%20Privacy%20Notice_2024.pdf?view=open) for further details. Visa Sponsorship Please note we are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa for roles outside of engineering and product at this time. Sponsorship for engineering and product roles is not guaranteed, but is instead based on the business needs for that specific role at that time. Please reach out to the recruiter with any questions. Fraud Alert ClickUp Talent Acquisition will only initiate contact via an @[clickup.com](http://clickup.com) email or through our official careers portal on [clickup.com](http://clickup.com). We will never request fees, payments, or sensitive personal information. Please disregard any offers received outside these channels and report them to support@clickup.com. AI Processing Notice ClickUp may use artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to help review and screen candidates’ employment applications against role-related criteria. These tools support, but do not replace, human decision‑making. If you have questions or need an accommodation in the recruitment process, please contact us at AskPeople@ClickUp.com. 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