Overview
We are looking for a high-performing Senior Backend Engineer to help build and scale mission-critical systems powering real-time, high-throughput applications used by a global audience.
We are looking for engineers who take ownership, move fast, think commercially, and proactively improve the systems around them. The ideal candidate is someone who naturally identifies problems, fixes inefficiencies without being asked, and raises the engineering standard of the team through both technical execution and strong communication.
You should be comfortable operating in a fast-paced environment with high autonomy, making pragmatic architectural decisions, and balancing speed with long-term maintainability.
We place a strong emphasis on ownership, accountability, engineering judgment, and modern AI-assisted workflows. Engineers joining the team should understand how to effectively leverage AI tooling to accelerate development, research, debugging, and operational efficiency — while maintaining strong critical thinking and engineering discipline.
Responsibilities
- Design, build, and operate scalable backend services using Node.js, Express, and TypeScript
- Own backend systems end-to-end, including architecture, implementation, deployment, observability, reliability, and performance
- Design and optimize PostgreSQL schemas, queries, indexes, and migrations for high-throughput production workloads
- Build and maintain real-time systems using WebSockets and socket.io
- Improve system throughput, latency, reliability, and operational efficiency across services and infrastructure
- Proactively identify bottlenecks, technical debt, architectural weaknesses, and operational inefficiencies, and independently drive improvements
- Troubleshoot complex production issues across backend services, infrastructure, and integrations, implementing long-term fixes rather than temporary patches
- Design and operate services within AWS using cloud-native patterns focused on scalability, resilience, and security
- Write clean, maintainable, well-tested code with strong engineering discipline
- Use AI-assisted engineering workflows effectively, including research, debugging, code generation, architecture exploration, and productivity tooling
- Critically review and validate AI-generated code and recommendations to ensure correctness, maintainability, security, and performance
- Collaborate closely with Product, Engineering, Operations, and stakeholders to deliver high-impact features quickly and reliably
- Contribute to improving engineering standards, tooling, deployment practices, monitoring, and backend best practices
- Mentor engineers through technical leadership, code reviews, architectural discussions, and operational guidance
What We’re Looking For
We are specifically looking for engineers with strong ownership mentality and high personal standards.
The type of engineer who succeeds here is someone who:
- Takes initiative without waiting for direction
- Notices problems and fixes them proactively
- Improves surrounding systems while working on adjacent features
- Thinks critically about architecture, scalability, and developer experience
- Communicates clearly with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Operates with urgency and accountability
- Enjoys building, experimenting, and solving difficult engineering problems
- Thrives in environments with autonomy and responsibility rather than rigid process
- Understands how to effectively leverage modern AI tooling without becoming dependent on it
- Can distinguish between fast output and high-quality engineering judgment
We value engineers who have demonstrated ambition outside of traditional employment environments, including:
- Building personal projects
- Contributing to open-source
- Deep experimentation with infrastructure, performance, scaling, or emerging technologies
- Developing niche expertise in a specific area of software engineering
Requirements
- Proven experience as a Senior Backend Engineer or backend-focused Full Stack Engineer working on production systems at scale
- Strong expertise in Node.js, Express, and TypeScript
- Strong PostgreSQL experience, including:
- Schema design
- Query optimization
- Indexing strategies
- Data modeling
- Performance tuning
- Migration management
- Hands-on experience building and operating real-time systems using WebSockets (preferably socket.io)
- Strong understanding of:
- Distributed systems
- Scalability
- High availability
- Observability
- Reliability engineering
- Backend security principles
- Experience diagnosing and resolving production performance bottlenecks
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation
- Strong communication skills and ability to work directly with stakeholders and cross-functional teams
- Strong AI literacy and experience effectively using AI-powered engineering tools in day-to-day development workflows
- Ability to critically evaluate AI-generated code and avoid introducing low-quality abstractions, security issues, or technical debt
- Ability to independently own complex projects from architecture through deployment and production support
Nice to Have
- Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CDK, or CloudFormation)
- Experience with React.js and state management libraries such as MobX for occasional frontend contributions
- Experience with crypto transactions, wallets, or blockchain-adjacent systems
- Experience in high-throughput, real-time, or latency-sensitive environments
- Familiarity with observability tooling and monitoring stacks
- Experience with Jest, Mocha, or modern backend testing frameworks
- Experience working in fast-moving startup or scale-up environments
- Experience integrating AI tooling into engineering workflows at scale
What Success Looks Like
- You consistently improve systems beyond the immediate task assigned
- You reduce operational friction and raise engineering quality over time
- You make strong technical decisions with minimal oversight
- You contribute meaningful architectural improvements
- You operate with high accountability and reliability
- You leverage AI as a force multiplier while maintaining strong engineering judgment
- You help move the engineering organisation toward a more ownership-driven, high-performance culture
Engineering Culture
We value:
- Ownership over bureaucracy
- Pragmatism over process theatre
- High standards over mediocrity
- Speed with responsibility
- Intelligent use of AI tooling paired with strong engineering judgment
- Engineers who think like builders, not task executors
Pay: £65,000.00-£110,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Casual dress
- Company events
- Work from home
Application question(s):
- Have you personally designed or optimized PostgreSQL schemas, indexes, queries, or migrations for production workloads?
- Have you built or maintained real-time backend systems using WebSockets, socket.io, pub/sub, event streams, or similar technologies?
- Have you owned backend services in production, including deployment, monitoring, debugging incidents, and implementing long-term fixes?
Education:
Experience:
- TypeScript: 4 years (required)
- PostgreSQL: 3 years (required)
Language:
Work Location: Remote
