Senior Backend Engineer

About the role

Vogo is seeking a versatile, highly skilled Senior Backend Engineer to join our engineering organization. In this role, you’ll help ensure high performance, reliability, and scalability, and contribute to the architecture and direction of our systems. Our backend systems are the backbone of the traveler experience, and this role plays a critical part in scaling our platform to support millions of users and high-volume transactions.

Role & Responsibilities

• Design, architect, and implement robust APIs and services using Node.js, PostgreSQL, and Redis
• Optimize complex SQL queries and schemas to ensure lightning-fast performance across large datasets
• Leverage AI coding tools (Claude, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, etc.) as a core part of your development workflow, and contribute to integrating AI/LLM-powered features into our platform
• Tackle high-scale engineering challenges to ensure reliability and efficiency under heavy traffic
• Collaborate cross-functionally with product, engineering, and leadership teams on backend features
• Proactively identify and resolve technical debt; lead refactoring projects to future-proof our stack
• Participate in team standups, code reviews, and deployment processes
• Mentor and support other engineers, helping to elevate team-wide technical excellence
• Take ownership of projects and drive initiatives from concept to production

Qualifications

• 8+ years of backend software engineering experience
• Strong experience with Node.js and PostgreSQL (or equivalent relational databases)
• Strong SQL skills - able to write, debug, and optimize complex queries on large datasets
• Demonstrated AI fluency — actively uses AI tools in day-to-day engineering work
• Experience working on high-volume, consumer-facing platforms
• Solid understanding of backend architecture, distributed systems, and scalability principles
• Experience with DevOps practices and cloud infrastructure (preferably Google Cloud or AWS), including CI/CD, monitoring, and infrastructure as code
• Entrepreneurial mindset with a self-driven, ownership mentality
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills

Benefits & Perks

• Competitive salary + equity
• Top-tier laptop provided
• 100% company-paid health benefits for base plan coverage, with the option to upgrade to higher-tier plans
• 401(k) with company match
• Unlimited, guilt-free vacation days
• Annual wellness stipend (gym + other wellness activities)
• Monthly house cleaning stipend
• Annual travel allowance
• Monthly cell phone & internet usage stipend
• Charity donation company match
• Employee referral bonus
• Team offsites/activities