Backend Engineer at Clerk

About Clerk

Clerk builds best-in-class developer experience for authentication and user management. Our products include full-stack React components and hooks like <SignUp/>, <SignIn/>, <UserProfile/>, useUser, and useOrganization. We are a globally distributed, remote-first team that values craftsmanship, usability, and building developer-first products that "just work".

About the role

Clerk is hiring a Backend Engineer to help expand and improve our core authentication product. This backend-focused, full-stack engineering role will work on high-impact features, observability, and scalable APIs that developers rely on daily. You will collaborate directly with product, design, and customers to shape functionality that solves real developer problems.

What you’ll do

• Shape the Clerk authentication experience by building and improving core managed authentication features used by thousands of teams.
• Design and implement new product features such as advanced OAuth flows, secure session management, audit logs, and observability tooling.
• Improve usability and workflows by partnering with design and product to streamline developer-facing experiences.
• Build for observability and transparency including data pipelines and developer tools to diagnose authentication flows and issues.
• Collaborate closely with customers and teammates to iterate on real user feedback and deliver high-quality solutions.
• Execute with craftsmanship by writing maintainable, performant, and well-tested code.
• Work across the stack when needed to deliver end-to-end product outcomes, with a focus on backend systems.

Who you are

• Comfortable writing idiomatic Golang and familiar with modern frontend stacks, particularly React and TypeScript, even if you are primarily backend-focused.
• Experienced with clean API design and building scalable services that serve other developers.
• Familiar with event-driven architectures, Pub/Sub patterns, and scaling challenges for high-volume systems.
• Committed to code quality and system design, and able to advocate for maintainable, performant solutions.
• Customer-obsessed with a track record of solving real problems for developer users.
• Thrives in a remote, collaborative environment and communicates clearly across distributed teams.

Technology environment

Our architecture uses Golang on the backend, React and TypeScript on the frontend, and is hosted on Google Cloud with Cloudflare for delivery and edge features. We prioritize observability, reliability, and developer ergonomics.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation to fairly reward your skills and experience.
• Equity ownership through a stock option plan to share in company growth.
• Work gear and a home office stipend so you can set up an ideal workspace.
• Flexible vacation policy, recommended 25 days per year with additional national holidays; unlimited vacation approach.
• Diverse and inclusive team in a globally distributed environment.

Work arrangement

This is a fully remote position. Clerk operates as a remote-first company and expects strong communication habits to collaborate effectively across timezones.

How to apply

Apply via the job page and include your resume and examples of relevant engineering work, particularly projects involving Golang, APIs, or developer-facing tooling. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.