Flagship Pioneering
Principal Backend Developer
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA · Principal · full-time
Stay score
odds of building a lasting career here
Sponsors, but it's cap-subject — you still face the weighted lottery (~61% per draw at Level IV). Good if you win; have a cap-exempt backup on your list.
Lottery odds assume a STEM candidate.
Personalize to your clock →H-1B wage level
the lottery is wage-weighted — each level is one more entry
$10,198 more — $162,198 — moves this role to Level III and 3 lottery entries. That figure is inside the range the employer already advertised.
Based on the DOL prevailing wage for this occupation and worksite, a base salary of $162,198 would place this position at wage Level III. That figure is within the posted range, and I'd like to target it. This role classifies under "Software Developers" for prevailing-wage purposes.
DOL prevailing wage, 2026-27 wage year · Software Developers (15-1252) · Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH. Wage level is derived by USCIS from the offered wage, occupation and worksite; the occupation shown is inferred from the job title.
Employer immigration record
from this employer's Department of Labor filings
Files H-1B transfers
Sourced from Department of Labor LCA, PERM and prevailing-wage disclosure data. Employer matching is by name, so figures may be split across an employer's legal entities. Absence of a filing means none appears in our copy of the data, not that none exists.
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About the role
- As a Principal Backend Engineer, you'll be a technical leader responsible for architecting, building, and scaling the core backend systems that power our platform.
- You'll drive the design of high-throughput services, resilient data pipelines, and integrations with mission-critical third-party providers.
- Working closely with product managers, designers, and engineering leadership, you'll translate complex requirements into robust, elegant systems that support rapid growth.
Responsibilities
- Own Core Backend Systems - Design, build, and maintain scalable services, APIs, and platform infrastructure.
- Drive Large-Scale Data Pipelines - Architect and operate high-volume, resilient data pipelines for ingestion, transformation, and analytics.
- Lead Third-Party Integrations - Build and maintain integrations with external vendors, ensuring reliability, observability, and long-term maintainability.
- Mentor & Lead Engineers - Provide guidance on system design, debugging at scale, and engineering practices.
- Wear Multiple Hats - Support DevOps, troubleshooting, or other platform needs when necessary.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
- Deep experience with third-party integrations, REST/GraphQL APIs, webhooks, and rate-limited services.
- Proficiency with SQL/NoSQL databases, data pipelines, and performance optimization.
Nice to have
- Exposure to multiple backend domains (analytics, payments, notifications, workflow orchestration).
- Hands-on experience with serverless or edge architectures for rapid iteration.
- Familiarity with low-friction integrations with third-party tools and SaaS platforms.
- Track record of scaling systems from small MVPs to production-ready services.
- Comfort with ambiguity and making trade-offs between speed, quality, and maintainability.
- Since its launch in 2000, Flagship has originated more than 100 companies.
- Our core values guide us through uncertainty and toward lasting impact.
- We recognize that great candidates often bring unique strengths without fulfilling every qualification.
Compensation
- The salary range for this role is $152,000 - $209,000.
Benefits
- Flagship Pioneering invents and builds platform companies, each with the potential for multiple products that transform human health, sustainability and beyond.
- vaccinating billions of people against COVID-19, curing intractable diseases, improving human health, preempting illness, and feeding the world by improving the resiliency and sustainability of agriculture.
- We are dedicated to building diverse and inclusive teams and look forward to learning more about your background and interest in Flagship.
- Extuitive, Inc. currently offers healthcare coverage, annual incentive program, retirement benefits and a broad range of other benefits.
- Compensation and benefits information is based on Extuitive, Inc.'s good faith estimate as of the date of publication and may be modified in the future.
Company info
- Our mission is to empower entrepreneurs and direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands with AI-driven tools that simplify, accelerate, and scale the launch of new products.
- Learn more about Flagship at;br> At Flagship, we accept impossible missions to enable bigger leaps.
Equal opportunity
- We are an equal opportunity employer.
Visa & Work Authorization
- California residents have rights under the CCPA/CPRA including to know, delete, and opt out of the sharing of their personal information
This listing is sourced directly from Flagship Pioneering's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.