Staff Backend Engineer (Founding Team)

Team: IT

Location: India

Commitment: Full-time

Workplace Type: remote

Accountabilities:

• Take end-to-end ownership of the technology as the founding engineer, helping establish the technical foundations of a 0-to-1 product.
• Design, build, and evolve robust backend systems, including APIs, services, databases, data models, and system architecture.
• Own backend engineering while contributing across the stack when required to deliver product outcomes effectively.
• Partner closely with the founding team to shape product direction, technical strategy, and pragmatic engineering decisions.
• Take features from idea to production, including technical design, implementation, testing, deployment, monitoring, and iteration.
• Make practical technology choices suited to a small, fast-moving team, balancing scalability, simplicity, reliability, and speed.
• Own the reliability, performance, security, and maintainability of production systems.
• Proactively identify technical challenges, investigate root causes, and implement effective solutions without waiting for detailed direction.
• Use AI extensively throughout the engineering workflow to improve development speed, quality, and problem-solving.
• Experiment with AI-native development approaches and contribute to AI-powered product capabilities where they can create meaningful value.

Requirements:

• 7–10 years of software engineering experience, with strong expertise in Node.js and TypeScript.
• Extensive backend engineering experience combined with the ability and willingness to work across the full stack.
• A track record of working primarily within product-based organizations and building software with a strong focus on end-user outcomes.
• Proven experience taking products, platforms, or major features from 0 to 1 and bringing them into production.
• Strong experience designing backend architectures, APIs, databases, distributed services, and production-ready systems.
• Demonstrated ownership and independence, with the ability to make sound engineering decisions in a lean and highly autonomous environment.
• Hands-on, active use of AI tools and AI-assisted workflows as part of day-to-day software engineering.
• Experience building personal projects, experiments, or other work using AI, LLMs, or AI-powered development tools.
• A curious, self-directed mindset with a strong appetite for continuous learning and experimentation.
• Personal, open-source, or side projects that demonstrate technical curiosity beyond day-to-day professional responsibilities.
• Comfort making both engineering and product decisions when requirements and processes are not fully defined.
• Strong problem-solving, debugging, analytical, and communication skills.
• Ability to translate product requirements into simple, scalable, maintainable technical solutions.

Benefits:

• Full-time contract opportunity with a remote-first setup for candidates based in India.
• Compensation structured as contract income, without standard employee salary deductions.
• Depending on individual eligibility and tax circumstances, candidates may potentially claim up to 50% of gross receipts as presumptive business/professional income under applicable Indian tax provisions.
• This contract structure may provide meaningful tax efficiency compared with a conventional salaried employment arrangement, subject to applicable rules and individual circumstances.
• High degree of autonomy and ownership within a small, fast-moving team.
• Opportunity to join at an early stage and have substantial influence over product, architecture, engineering practices, and technical direction.
• Exposure to AI-native engineering practices and opportunities to build AI-powered capabilities.
• Remote flexibility while working with an India-based engineering team.
• Opportunity to build a product from the ground up and make decisions that directly influence its evolution and scalability.