Senior Backend Engineer

The Senior Backend Engineer is an experienced developer responsible for designing, building, testing, deploying, and maintaining the server-side systems that power our products. Working closely with product managers, designers, and other engineers on a small, fast-moving team, the Senior Backend Engineer owns backend services end-to-end, from API design and data modeling through deployment, monitoring, and ongoing operation in production. This role demands strong technical depth in Python, modern backend frameworks, and cloud infrastructure, paired with sound judgment about what to build, how to test it, and when a change is worth the cost. Build and ship APIs and services. Design, develop, test, and maintain backend services and APIs using Python and FastAPI. Data modeling. Model data and manage schema evolution with MySQL, SQLAlchemy ORM, and Alembic migrations. API contracts. Define and enforce request/response contracts with Pydantic, including validation, serialization, and clear error semantics. Async pipelines. Build asynchronous and background processing pipelines using Taskiq. Deploy and operate Containers. Containerize services with Docker. Data and caching. Operate data and caching infrastructure on MySQL and Redis. Production ownership. Instrument services for observability ,monitor health, debug incidents, and continuously harden reliability, security, and performance. Test, document, and improve Testing. Write thorough automated tests (unit, integration, and end-to-end) and never ship code that has not been verified to work. Trade-offs. Evaluate proposed changes through a clear cost / effort / risk vs. reward / value lens, and make pragmatic recommendations on what to build, defer, or skip. Documentation. Document service architecture, runbooks, deployment procedures, and key decisions. Team. Participate in code reviews, share knowledge, and help raise the engineering bar across the team. AI-assisted workflows. Use Claude and similar tools to accelerate design, implementation, testing, and review while maintaining a high quality bar. Experience Senior backend engineer with significant experience building and operating production backend systems. Small-company experience where engineers are expected to own problems end-to-end and wear multiple hats. Technical expertise Expert in Python and FastAPI for building modern, performant backend services. Deep experience with MySQL, including schema design, indexing, query tuning, and operational concerns. Strong working knowledge of SQLAlchemy ORM and Alembic for database access and migration management. Expert with Pydantic for data validation, settings management, and API contract enforcement. Hands-on experience with Redis(caching, pub/sub, queues) and with Taskiq for background and scheduled work. Comfortable with Docker for local development, building images, and shipping containerized services. Proficient with a major cloud platform such as Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud. Engineering foundations Software security. Solid grasp of security principles across authentication, authorization, secrets management, data handling, and dependency hygiene. CS fundamentals. Solid grasp of computer science fundamentals and schema design best practices. Analytical thinking. Strong analytical skills and the ability to make data-driven decisions. AI-enhanced workflows. Proficient with (or willing to learn) Claude and similar AI tools to work efficiently and ship higher-quality software. Customer-centric. You consistently ask, “How do I build this so it works well for the customer?” and let that drive design, prioritization, and trade-offs. Systems-level thinker. You understand not just how to write application code, but how applications are tested, deployed, hosted, monitored, secured, scaled, and maintained over time. Pragmatic decision-maker. You weigh cost, effort, and risk against value, and avoid both over-engineering and shortcuts. Quality-driven. You don’t consider work complete until it’s tested, and you never ship code without first verifying it behaves correctly. Driven and independent. Motivated to build great products on a small, high-impact team.