Senior Backend Engineer
In Tandem · Minneapolis, MN
$120,000–$140,000
Jul 12, 2026
Minneapolis, MN
Jul 20, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior backend engineering role centered on AI-native development workflows — writing feature specifications, directing coding agents to execute them, and critically reviewing the output rather than authoring code line by line. The position is structured as a rotating assignment across multiple product teams and codebases before settling into a permanent team home. It suits experienced backend engineers with strong systems judgment who already use AI agents as their primary development interface.
Senior level · 5+ years · Remote · Full-time
Pay in the description: $120,000–$140,000
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 59,500 people nationally plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 25,100–89,500
Applicant volume Heavy — This req sits in a large pool with little in its requirements to thin it, and auto-apply tools fire at everything in the occupation. Applying early and leading with the rare skills below is what gets read.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $138,970 (middle half $107,524–$175,762). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (9)
The JD's primary language requirement is Java, but explicitly accepts Kotlin, C#, or Go as alternatives — all captured under one skill with alternatives.
AI coding agents are a hard gate: the JD requires daily hands-on use as the 'primary development interface, not as autocomplete.' Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and OpenAI Codex are named as interchangeable examples.
Custom agent workflows (MCP servers, Claude skills, Cursor rules, Copilot extensions) are listed in the required qualifications block; the named tools are treated as interchangeable alternatives for the same capability.
Spec-driven development is listed as a hard gate ('Fluency in spec-driven development') but names no specific tool — it is a required methodology, not a named technology. Included because the JD explicitly gates on demonstrated fluency with concrete examples.
Spring Boot, React/Web/iOS/Android, Docker, Kubernetes, Atlassian tooling (Bitbucket Pipelines, Jira, Confluence), and Kafka all appear under the 'What would be great to have' section and are preferred.
No degree requirement is stated anywhere in the posting.
The posting notes it is remote but originally listed 'Remote - Minnesota'; per caller instruction, the candidate pool is treated as national and no metro is set.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): spec-driven development.
Caller marked this a fully-remote role — scored against the national candidate pool.
Read the full posting
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