Principal Backend Engineer

Ever imagined saying, “I helped launch the future of transportation”?

We’re rewriting the rules of urban mobility. At Vay, customers tap a button and a car arrives - with no one inside - powered by our world-first Remote Driving technology on real public streets.

We’re live in Las Vegas and scaling fast, powered by a strategic investment of up to $410 million from Grab. Our mission is simple: replace private car ownership with a faster, cleaner, door-to-door mobility model. If you want to build something real, visible, and genuinely transformative, you’ll feel right at home here.

What’s happening at Vay

• First to roll out vehicles in both Europe and the USA on public roads without a human being inside & currently the 2nd largest commercial, driverless car fleet in the Western World.
• We've partnered with Kodiak to bring remote-driving technology to autonomous trucks in the US, showcasing our ability to integrate our system into heavy-duty commercial vehicles and expand the applications of our tech across the US.
• We’ve completed 10’s of thousands of trips so far and are busy multiplying our Las Vegas fleet just to meet demand!
• ...And soon we’ll be expanding across the US & Europe

Why this role is exciting

At Vay, we’re revolutionizing mobility with cutting-edge remote driving technology, and we need exceptional engineers to bring this vision to life. As a Principal Backend Engineer, you will play a pivotal role in scaling our business and shaping the future of transportation.

This is not your typical role - your work will sit at the intersection of deep tech and mobility, tackling challenges that have never been solved before. You'll collaborate closely with a dynamic, cross-functional team spanning product, frontend, mobile, electrical engineering, embedded software, and more. From defining technical requirements to designing, implementing, and deploying solutions, you’ll have full ownership over the technology you build - making a real, tangible impact on the company and our customers.

Your contributions will power fleet management, dispatch, payments, and real-time APIs that connect drivers and customers seamlessly. Every line of code you write will help craft a magical user experience, ensuring that remote driving feels effortless, safe, and efficient.

If you thrive on solving complex problems and want to push the boundaries of what’s possible in mobility, we’d love to have you on board.

What you'll be driving

• Design & Develop: Build and maintain scalable Golang-based backend services, APIs, and cloud infrastructure as code - leveraging CI/CD to ensure seamless deployments.
• Elevate Engineering Excellence: Contribute to cross-team platform engineering initiatives, shaping shared best practices, tools, and libraries to drive efficiency and innovation.
• Build End-to-End Solutions: Work closely with frontend, mobile, and embedded teams to craft seamless, high-impact solutions that directly enhance the customer experience and business operations.
• Drive Product & Technical Vision: Collaborate with product and engineering leadership to refine goals, define requirements, and actively contribute to sprint and quarterly planning.
• Own Quality & Reliability: Champion clean code, automation, and continuous monitoring, ensuring robustness, scalability, and a world-class developer experience.

What are we looking for

• Backend Expertise: Hands-on experience developing scalable backend services and APIs, preferably in Golang (experience in Java or Python is also highly relevant).
• Cloud & Distributed Systems: Solid understanding of cloud-native architectures, distributed systems, scalability, and reliability best practices.
• Event-Driven Architectures: Familiarity with technologies like Kafka, RabbitMQ, or similar event-driven messaging systems.
• DevOps & Infrastructure: Experience with CI/CD, infrastructure as code, and monitoring to ensure robust and maintainable deployments.
• Database Proficiency: Strong knowledge of relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL), with an understanding of data modeling and optimization.
• Education & Fundamentals: Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related STEM field, with a strong grasp of algorithms and data structures.

Nice to Have:

• Industry Experience: Background in Mobility, Logistics, or similar domains.
• Mobile-First Products: Experience working on products with a strong mobile integration.
• Additional Tech Stack: Familiarity with Node.js, gRPC, AWS, Terraform, or NoSQL databases.
• Low-Level Programming: Proficiency with C/C++ for performance-critical components.

Why choose Vay

A global team of smart, motivated people from 30+ countries who love tackling hard problems and turning bold ideas into reality

Huge scope for impact in a fast paced environment

ESOP stock options: A stake in Vay’s future - not just a salary

Unlimited Paid Vacation Days

Subsidised Deutschland ticket (Berlin)

️‍♂️ Subsidised Urban Sports Club or FitX Membership

All Vay team members receive 30% off their Vay rides

️ Exclusive external discounts

€350 Home office budget

✈️ Relocation financial assistance when relocating to Berlin

Fully funded German lessons

Regular team events throughout the year

For more information on Vay’s physical demands, working environments and safety requirements, you can review this link. We’ll also cover anything specific to this role during the first interview.

We’d love to stay connected for future opportunities, so feel free to include your LinkedIn profile when you apply.

We welcome applications from all backgrounds and experiences. If you’re excited about shaping something truly groundbreaking, we’d be happy to hear from you.