[Remote] Senior Backend Engineer – Automation & Platform Implementation
Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Assembly Industries is a fast-growing startup focused on building an AI-enabled talent platform that connects skilled professionals with innovative companies. The Senior Backend Engineer will be responsible for engineering orchestration infrastructure and executing customer-facing platform deployments, utilizing Java microservices and NoSQL databases to build robust backend systems.
Responsibilities
- Build, extend, and optimize Java-based microservices responsible for task execution, state management, and orchestration logic
- Model and manage NoSQL document databases to track execution state, workflow metadata, and session/context persistence
- Define internal API contracts, adapters, and connectors that enable modular integration with external APIs and customer deployments
- Implement production-ready infrastructure for data ingestion, document chunking, embedding indexing, and retrieval (RAG) pipelines
- Architect backend services that support multi-step agentic flows, including context assembly, tool calls, and session memory
- Turn product requirements for semantic search and AI assistant features into resilient, production-grade backend code
- Deploy, configure, and customize the automation platform to meet specific customer use cases and business requirements
- Connect external systems through custom sync pipelines, webhooks, and enterprise integrations (e.g., OAuth, ETL-style ingestion)
- Debug production issues across our stack and customer environments, capturing field insights to improve the core platform
- Enhance platform observability by setting up robust tracing, execution visibility, and debugging tools for failed runs
Skills
- 4–6 years of software engineering experience building resilient production backend systems and working with distributed architectures
- Strong proficiency in Java, with deep experience developing scalable microservices, handling asynchronous jobs, retries, idempotency, and system failure modes
- Experience with NoSQL document databases (e.g., MongoDB, Firestore, Couchbase) for state and metadata tracking
- Experience building or integrating workflow engines or enterprise automation systems (beyond one-off scripting)
- Working knowledge of Python for building integrations, tooling, and rapid prototyping
- Solid understanding of LLM application structures, including embedding systems, vector search, retrieval mechanics, context windows, and agent/tool execution
- Strong interest or hands-on experience in semantic search, RAG pipelines, or conversational AI backends
- High Agency & Independent Execution: You have a strong sense of ownership and the exceptional self-direction required to navigate undocumented paths, make sound architectural calls, and take a project to completion with minimal guidance
- Thrives in a Startup Environment: You are energized by a fast-paced, evolving startup environment, are comfortable when requirements pivot, and are explicitly not looking for a predictable, mature role at a big company
- Wears Multiple Hats Comfortably: You gladly step outside a narrow engineering lane. You can context-switch seamlessly between core backend engineering, customer fire drills, and partner-facing implementation without losing quality
- Customer-Facing Technical Experience: Proven ability to interface with product teams, solution architects, and customer stakeholders to translate vague user requirements into working, deployed software
- Strong Documentation Culture: A consistent habit of writing clear system designs and deployment guides so that the next team member never has to start from zero
- Familiarity with durable execution systems or workflow engines (e.g., Temporal, Airflow, Camunda)
- Experience designing plugin, connector, or developer framework ecosystems
- Understanding of Edge/serverless computing or Backend-for-Frontend (BFF) patterns for customer-facing apps
Company Overview