Senior Backend Engineer, Collaboration

Department: Engineering

Location: Remote (UTC-5) to UTC+2, USA, South America, Europe, Africa

Compensation: $95K – $200K • Offers Equity

Employment Type: FullTime

The Pitch

Slate is building collaboration features that let brand teams work together on content in real time — and we need a Senior Backend Engineer to own the infrastructure that makes it possible. You’ll build the backend systems for real-time collaboration: operational transforms, presence, commenting, version history, and the APIs that tie it all together.

What You’ll Actually Do

Build real-time collaboration infrastructure

• Design and build the backend systems that power real-time document collaboration — conflict resolution, operational transforms or CRDTs, and state synchronisation

• Build presence, cursors, and live activity indicators across Slate’s shared workspaces

• Own the performance and reliability of collaboration features at scale

Enable team workflows

• Build commenting, tagging, and notification systems that support async and real-time team workflows

• Design version history and branching capabilities so teams can collaborate without fear

• Work closely with frontend engineers to define the APIs and protocols they need

Raise the platform bar

• Improve the reliability and scalability of Slate’s existing backend systems

• Define and own the observability and alerting for collaboration features

• Contribute to architectural decisions that affect the whole engineering team

You’d Be a Great Fit If

You have the experience:

• 5+ years of backend engineering experience with a track record of shipping production systems

• Experience building real-time systems (WebSockets, CRDTs, OT, or similar)

• Strong understanding of distributed systems and database design

You’ve done work like this before:

• Built collaborative editing or real-time sync features in a production product

• Designed systems that handle concurrent writes and conflict resolution

• Operated stateful systems with high availability requirements

You work the way we work:

• You own the outcomes, not just the tasks

• You communicate clearly and raise issues early

• You think carefully about correctness and edge cases, but also know when to ship

Tech Stack

Node.js, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Redis, WebSockets, AWS

The Details

• Location: Remote, anywhere from EST (UTC-5) to UTC+2

• Reporting to: Maciej Kucharek, Head of Engineering

• Compensation: US $170k–200k | Rest of World $95k–140k USD + equity

Benefits

• Equity options

• Unlimited PTO (we actually take it)

• $200/month wellness stipend

• Health insurance stipend

• Home office budget

About Slate

Slate is the creative workspace for brand social teams. We help teams create and ship on-brand content fast with an all-in-one editor, built-in asset management, and seamless creative file workflows, backed by hands-on support from people who have done the job. Teams across top sports leagues and global brands like Amazon and Hoka use Slate every day to elevate their social presence.

Note: We do not sponsor work visas.

Slate is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees, regardless of background, identity, or experience.