Backend Engineer - Go & AWS at Govtech Oddball in Columbus
Career & Market Insight
Career Trajectory: This role sits at the intersection of two high-demand disciplines — backend API engineering in Go and data pipeline development with Python/AWS. Both skill sets are consistently ranked among the most sought-after in the market, making this an excellent resume builder for mid-to-senior engineers.
Compensation vs. Market: The $100k–$135k range is competitive for a backend engineer at a small govtech firm, though it trails top-of-market FAANG or Series B+ startup rates (which often reach $160k–$200k+ for similar Go expertise). The trade-off is meaningful public-sector impact and strong job stability tied to federal contracts.
Skills You'll Develop:
- Production-grade Go (Golang) — still a differentiating skill in backend engineering
- AWS serverless architectures (Lambda, Step Functions, Glue) — highly marketable cloud skills
- Healthcare data standards (FHIR) — a niche with growing demand as health tech expands
- Federal security & compliance — valuable for a stable, recession-resistant career path
Culture Signals: Oddball positions itself as a small company with big-impact work — expect startup-like ownership and autonomy paired with the structure of federal contracting. The emphasis on Agile, code reviews, and cross-functional collaboration suggests a mature engineering culture, not a chaotic early-stage startup.
Green Flags: Flexible PTO, education stipend, and genuine mission-driven work. Watch for: Clearance requirements may limit job mobility within the private sector later; federal contracting work can sometimes move slower than product startups.
Oddball believes that the best products are built when companies understand and value the things they are working on. We value learning and growth and the ability to make a big impact at a small company. We believe that we can make big changes happen and improve the daily lives of millions of people by bringing quality software to the federal space.
We're looking for a Backend Engineer to join our CMS team, building and maintaining the APIs and backend services that power Healthcare.gov tools used by millions of Americans enrolling in and exploring health coverage — including third party enrollment platforms.
What you'll be doing:
- Develop, enhance, and maintain backend services and APIs in Go supporting healthcare marketplace features
- Build and maintain ETL pipelines using Python to clean, transform, and move data across the healthcare data ecosystem
- Design and build REST APIs backed by PostgreSQL with a focus on reliability and backward compatibility
- Work with AWS services including S3, Lambda, Step Functions, and Glue to support data processing and pipeline workflows
- Write clean, well-tested code with a focus on performance, maintainability, and security
- Support ongoing operations and maintenance of existing digital products alongside new feature development
- Contribute to code reviews and help uphold engineering standards across the team
What you'll bring:
- Hands-on experience writing backend services in Go (Golang)
- Experience with Python for data cleaning, manipulation, and ETL workflows
- Familiarity with Pandas and/or PySpark is a strong plus
- Familiarity with FHIR or healthcare interoperability standards is a plus
- Proficiency with PostgreSQL or similar relational databases and SQL
- Experience with AWS services including S3, Lambda, Step Functions, or Glue
- Experience designing and building REST APIs in production environments
- Familiarity with federal security and compliance requirements is a plus
- Thrives in a remote, collaborative Agile environment and genuinely enjoys working closely with a cross-functional team
- Communicates clearly and openly, whether in a code review or a cross-team planning session
- Performs other related duties as assigned
Requirements:
- Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States. In alignment with federal contract requirements, certain roles may also require U.S. citizenship and the ability to obtain and maintain a federal background investigation and/or a security clearance.
Education:
- Bachelor's Degree
Benefits:
- Fully remote
- Tech & Education Stipend
- Comprehensive Benefits Package
- Company Match 401(k) plan
- Flexible PTO, Paid Holidays
Oddball is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate against applicants based on race, religion, color, disability, medical condition, legally protected genetic information, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, gender identity or expression, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions), age, veteran status or other legally protected characteristics. Any applicant with a mental or physical disability who requires an accommodation during the application process should contact an Oddball HR representative to request such an accommodation by emailing [email protected]
Compensation:
At Oddball, it's important each employee is compensated competitively and fairly. In alignment with state legal requirements. A range for the included position is listed below. Be advised, actual offer details are determined by job category, job location, and candidate skill level.
United States Wage Range: $100,000 – $135,000
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