Senior / Staff Backend Engineer

Kindred is a members-only home swapping platform that unlocks the ability to live a travel-rich lifestyle through the power of community. By exchanging primary residences with trusted peers, renters and owners alike can match with Kindred spirits and explore new destinations without breaking the bank.

Kindred is revolutionizing the “third option” of travel accommodation, compared to short-term rentals and hotels. Since launching in 2022, Kindred has grown to a global community of 300,000 members across 150+ cities and puts home swapping on the map as a radically more affordable, responsible, and connected way to travel.

To support that momentum, Kindred has raised over $150M in capital from some of the most credible investors in Silicon Valley, including Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, New Enterprise Associates, Bessemer Venture Partners, Caffeinated Capital, Elad Gil, and founders of companies like Opendoor, Figma, ClassPass, and more.

Kindred’s co-founders are proven leaders from the early team at Opendoor ($15B+ exit), who have each built and scaled products that today generate $1B+ annual revenue combined.

We’re looking for the world’s top builders, executors, and believers to help us make travel more meaningful.

You can learn more about us in Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/francescawalton/2026/02/03/home-swap-startup-kindred-raises-125-million-in-fresh-funding-as-travelers-seek-creative-ways-to-save-money/ and The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/realestate/is-your-apartment-nice-enough-for-this-home-swapping-app.html.

The Role:

We’re looking for a world-class engineer with deep experience in backend software development to join our team.

We're looking for a thought partner who is motivated by the opportunity to build an iconic consumer product that will shape the future of travel.

What You'll Do:

- Serve as technology lead and own key decisions including the tech stack and strategy for backend design, data infrastructure, and machine learning investments.

- Work directly with product, design, and other engineers to build out our platform.

- Help establish and grow our engineering organization and mentor the next generation of technology leaders.

You may be a right fit for this role if you:

- Have 5+ years of technical experience as a backend software engineer.

- Have experience crafting robust backends and database structures that can both scale with user volume as well as business complexity.

- Have some experience with devops (setting up CI/CD, containerization, etc.)

- Have worked with service providers like AWS, configured CDNs, used Heroku, etc.

- Have demonstrated success operating as a tech lead on critical projects at previous roles.

- Have prior experience at a high-growth stage company.

- Are an entrepreneur at heart who is excited about bringing new experiences to the world.

- Are motivated by consumer products and building platforms that become cornerstones of consumer b