Product Software Engineer (Backend)
About Cedar
Cedar is creating the most significant innovation in home affordability since the 30-year mortgage. By reimagining the land lease as a consumer-first model, Cedar makes homeownership more accessible and sustainable for a wider range of buyers. We are actually solving home affordability at scale – this is one of the most pressing problems in our country today and we are fixing it. Our structure meaningfully reduces both the upfront cost of purchasing a home and monthly costs. We expand the path to ownership for people who have been locked out of traditional markets and help existing homeowners access their equity at cost well below existing solutions. Cedar is already making a substantial impact for homeowners and we have material backing from top investors. Join our fast-growing and high-performing team as we fundamentally change how people buy homes and create a new institutional asset class.
About the Role
As a Product Software Engineer (Backend) at Cedar, you will build and own the core systems that determine how properties are valued, risk is assessed, and capital is deployed. This role sits at the heart of Cedar’s product: the backend logic, data models, and integrations that power our consumer experience, distribution partnerships, and internal investment decisions.
You will design and implement systems that integrate with MLS platforms, mortgage origination partners, and third-party data providers, while also building internal tooling for automated valuation and underwriting. This is a high-impact role for an engineer who wants deep ownership in a complex, real-world domain where software decisions directly affect financial outcomes.
What You’ll Do
External Product & Partner Systems
Design and build backend services that integrate with MLS systems to surface and manage Cedar properties
Build APIs and workflows used by mortgage originator and distribution partners
Design backend systems that integrate with Loan Origination Systems (LOS)
Own data models, permissions, and workflows for external-facing property and partner portals
Internal Valuation & Risk Systems
Build and maintain Cedar’s Automated Valuation Model (AVM) infrastructure
Integrate and normalize public and paid data sources (e.g., FEMA, GIS systems, CoreLogic, property records)
Design systems that separately value land and improvements to support Cedar’s investment thesis
Build automated underwriting and ongoing monitoring systems to manage property-level risk (flood exposure, liens, insurance coverage, insurance lapse, etc.)
Ensure auditability, explainability, and correctness of valuation and underwriting decisions
Collaborate closely with investing team and quants
Engineering & Platform
Design clear, scalable data models and backend architectures
Own backend services end-to-end, including reliability and production behavior
Collaborate closely with Product Engineer (Frontend), Product Manager, and senior engineering leadership
Make pragmatic architectural tradeoffs that balance speed, correctness, and long-term maintainability
What We Need
We are looking for a backend engineer with strong systems thinking who has worked in complex, data-driven, or financially sensitive domains. You should be comfortable owning business-critical logic, working with imperfect real-world data, and designing systems where correctness, reliability, and trust are essential.
This role is ideal for someone who enjoys deeply understanding the domain they are building for—property data, valuation, underwriting, and risk—and translating that understanding into durable, well-structured software. Experience in fintech, prop-tech, mortgage, real estate data, or other regulated environments is a strong advantage.
You should bring sound judgment around data modeling, integrations, and long-term system evolution, and be comfortable taking real responsibility early.
Qualifications
4–8 years of backend or product software engineering experience
Strong experience designing and operating production backend systems
Experience with relational databases and complex data models
Experience integrating third-party APIs and external data sources
Prior experience in fintech, prop-tech, mortgage, real estate, or risk systems strongly preferred
Familiarity with cloud-native architectures and production monitoring
Why Choose Cedar?
Take real ownership early — the work is not theoretical
Grow through direct feedback, rigorous debate, and steep responsibility
Be pushed to develop judgment, not just skills
Build a track record that compounds — responsibility scales with performance
Cedar is built for people who want to operate at a very high level on work that matters. We run a true owner’s culture: high standards, direct feedback, fast iteration, and accountability to outcomes. You’ll have real responsibility early, you’ll be expected to think—not just execute—and you’ll be surrounded by teammates who push hard and care deeply about excellence.
This is not a company for people who need perfect clarity, gentle consensus, or predictable routines. The pace is fast, the problems are complex, and the bar is high. But the upside is rare: steep growth, meaningful autonomy, and the chance to do career-defining work with a team that treats the mission seriously and rewards success well.
If you want comfort, you won’t like it here. If you want to build, learn, and win—Cedar is the place.