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Backend Developer Job Description (2026): Duties, Skills and Salary

A backend developer builds the server side of an application: the APIs, business logic, databases and background jobs that users never see but every screen depends on. The work is about data and correctness: storing it safely, serving it quickly, and keeping services up when traffic spikes or a dependency fails.

Backend developers usually own one or more services in a language such as Java, Go, Python, C#, Node.js or Ruby, plus the data stores behind them. They work closely with the frontend and mobile developers who consume their APIs, and with DevOps or platform teams on deployment, monitoring and scaling.

Backend Developer job description template

Copy it, replace everything in [brackets] and cut what doesn't apply. Keep the requirements to what the job really needs.

Template · replace the [brackets]

Backend Developer

[Company] · [City and office days, or remote with the countries or time zones you hire in] · [Full-time]

About [Company]

[Two or three sentences on what your company does, who it serves and why this team matters now.]

About the role

We're looking for a backend developer to build and run the services behind [product]. You'll design APIs, model data and keep [number] services fast and reliable in [language] on [cloud], working with the frontend and mobile teams who build on what you ship.

What you'll do

  • Design and build REST or GraphQL APIs in [language and framework], with clear contracts and versioning.
  • Model data and write efficient queries for [PostgreSQL, MySQL or your data store], including migrations that run safely on live tables.
  • Build background jobs and event-driven flows on [Kafka, RabbitMQ, SQS or similar].
  • Add caching, indexes and profiling where they matter, and keep p95 latency within agreed targets.
  • Instrument services with logs, metrics and traces, and respond to alerts during your on-call weeks.
  • Write unit and integration tests, and review other developers' changes for correctness and security.
  • Document APIs so frontend, mobile and partner developers can use them without asking.

What you'll bring

  • [X]+ years building production backend services in [language].
  • Strong SQL and a working understanding of transactions, indexes and query plans.
  • Experience designing APIs and handling authentication, authorization and input validation.
  • Familiarity with message queues or event streaming, and with how distributed systems fail.
  • Experience deploying to [cloud] with Docker and a CI/CD pipeline.
  • The habit of measuring before optimizing.

Nice to have

  • Experience with Redis, Elasticsearch or another specialized data store.
  • Knowledge of Kubernetes and infrastructure as code with Terraform.
  • Work with high-volume or regulated data (payments, health records, personal data under GDPR).
  • Go, Rust or Kotlin alongside your main language.

What we offer

  • [Pay range: e.g. $X–$Y base salary, plus bonus or equity if offered]
  • [On-call compensation, learning budget, conference travel and flexible hours]
  • [Health cover, retirement or pension plan, paid time off, parental leave]
  • [Work authorization: whether you can sponsor a visa or hire through an employer of record]

[Our process: a recruiter call, a 90-minute pairing session where you extend a small API, a design interview on data modeling and scaling, and a call with the engineering manager.]

[Your equal opportunity statement, and how candidates can ask for adjustments during the process]

Put the pay range in the ad. Several US states, including California, Colorado, New York and Washington, require it in job postings, and the EU Pay Transparency Directive gives applicants the right to know the starting pay or its range before the interview.

What real backend developer job ads ask for

The skills named most often in the 452 newest backend developer job ads we analyzed (out of 2,950 live postings), as the share of ads that mention each. A skill most ads name is a fair must-have; one few ads name belongs under nice-to-have.

  1. 1AWS46%
  2. 2Kubernetes44%
  3. 3CI/CD43%
  4. 4Java42%
  5. 5Python35%
  6. 6Code review33%
  7. 7Docker32%
  8. 8REST APIs32%

Degrees mentioned most: Computer Science (22%), Bachelor's degree (21%), Master's degree (8%).

From live job ads · computed November 2, 2026 · refreshed daily

Backend Developer duties by seniority

What the job usually looks like at each level. Pitch the ad at one level and say which in the title.

Junior

  • Builds endpoints and fixes bugs in an existing service, following its patterns.
  • Writes migrations and tests while a reviewer checks query plans and edge cases.
  • Learns the deployment pipeline and the monitoring dashboards.

Mid-level

  • Designs new APIs and data models and owns a service in production.
  • Diagnoses slow queries, memory leaks and race conditions from metrics and traces.
  • Plans backward-compatible changes so no client breaks on release day.

Senior

  • Sets architecture across services: boundaries, data ownership and integration patterns.
  • Leads capacity planning, incident reviews and the move off legacy systems.
  • Coaches developers on API design, security and performance.

Backend Developer career path

  1. Junior Backend Developer
  2. Backend Developer
  3. Senior Backend Developer
  4. Staff Engineer, Architect or Engineering Manager

Backend developers often start in general software roles, or as full stack developers who found they preferred data and systems work. From senior, common next steps are staff engineer, software architect or engineering manager, or a move into neighboring specialties such as data engineering, site reliability or platform engineering, where backend skills carry over directly.

Advertised pay for backend developer jobs

Median advertised base salary in Backend Developer job ads in the United States: $195,000 (middle half: $160,500–$225,000), from 361 job ads with a published salary in the last 90 days.

This is advertised pay, not total compensation: bonuses, commission, equity and benefits aren't included, and many ads publish no pay at all.

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Backend Developer job description FAQ

What does a backend developer do?

Builds and runs the server side of an application: APIs, business logic, databases, background jobs and integrations with other services. They make sure data is stored correctly and reaches the web and mobile apps quickly and securely.

Which languages should a backend developer job description list?

The ones your services actually use, plus the data store. Naming one main language, such as Java or Go, and saying others are welcome widens the pool, because strong backend developers pick up a second language quickly.

What's the difference between a backend and a full stack developer?

A backend developer goes deep on servers, databases and APIs; a full stack developer covers both the backend and the user interface. Larger teams tend to hire specialists, while startups and small teams often prefer full stack developers.