Senior Software Engineer - Backend
About the role
The Senior Software Engineer will design, build, and maintain scalable RESTful APIs and backend services using Node.js and TypeScript, powering mission-critical loan origination workflows. They will also design efficient database schemas and optimize queries and migrations across PostgreSQL and MongoDB; implement caching strategies (e.g., Redis) for high-throughput workloads. This role involves cloud and containers management, building and deploying containerized applications with Docker; deploying and operating services on AWS (EC2, Lambda, RDS, S3, SQS). They will partner with DevOps to strengthen CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, and observability (logging, metrics, tracing, alerting).
Responsibilities
- Design & Build: Architect, develop, and maintain scalable RESTful APIs and backend services using Node.js and TypeScript, powering mission-critical loan origination workflows.
- Data Engineering: Design efficient database schemas and optimize queries and migrations across PostgreSQL and MongoDB; implement caching strategies (e.g., Redis) for high-throughput workloads.
- Cloud & Containers: Build, test, and deploy containerized applications with Docker; deploy and operate services on AWS (EC2, Lambda, RDS, S3, SQS).
- DevOps Collaboration: Partner with DevOps to strengthen CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, and observability (logging, metrics, tracing, alerting).
- Reliability & Security: Champion system reliability, performance, and secure coding best practices — our platform handles sensitive borrower data, and we operate in a SOC 2 Type II environment where security is a first-class engineering concern.
- Production Ownership: Partner with our Support team as an engineering point of contact for escalated production issues at scale — triage, root-cause, and resolve end-to-end, then land the permanent fix, alerting, and runbooks so issues don’t recur. Drive performance optimization across the backend and data layers.
- Global Collaboration: Coordinate daily with our India-based engineering team — handoffs, code reviews, and design alignment — keeping core hours of 7:00 AM – 4:00 PM PT to maximize morning overlap.
- Technical Leadership: Lead technical design sessions and code reviews, mentor mid-level engineers, and contribute to product planning and architectural roadmaps.
Requirements
- Experience: 5+ years of hands-on backend engineering experience with most, if not all, of the following: Node.js, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, AWS, and Docker.
- API & Systems Design: Strong command of RESTful API design, microservices and event-driven architectures, and message queues (e.g., SQS, Kafka, RabbitMQ).
- Data Fluency: Deep experience with both relational and NoSQL data modeling, query optimization, indexing strategies, and zero-downtime migrations.
- Quality Mindset: Solid habits around automated testing (unit, integration, E2E), code review, and CI/CD; you ship fast without breaking things.
- Security Awareness: Working knowledge of secure SDLC practices — authN/authZ patterns (OAuth 2.0, JWT), OWASP Top 10, and handling sensitive data in a regulated environment.
- Observability: Experience with monitoring and APM tooling (e.g., Datadog, CloudWatch, New Relic) and a bias toward measuring before optimizing.
- Escalation Experience: You’ve served as an engineering point of contact for support escalations and stay calm and methodical when debugging live production systems under pressure.
- AI-Forward: You leverage AI coding tools to maximize your speed and output — and are excited to help build AI-powered capabilities into the platform.
- Startup DNA: Proactive, self-directed, and comfortable with ambiguity; you thrive in a fast-paced, high-ownership environment and communicate clearly across teams.
Qualifications
- FinTech, mortgage, or other regulated-industry experience; familiarity with LOS/POS platforms or the loan origination lifecycle is a strong plus.
Benefits
Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance. 401(k) plan with employer match. Generous PTO policy. Endless learning and growth opportunities in a fast-paced, growth-mode startup environment. A supportive, inclusive, and high-performance company culture.
Pay
The US base salary range for this full-time position is $120,000 – $180,000 + up to 15% performance-based bonus. The position is eligible for performance-based equity compensation.
Schedule
Core hours 7:00 AM – 4:00 PM PT. San Francisco Bay Area, CA (Hybrid, 3–4 days a week) strongly preferred — remote US candidates also considered.
Work Authorization
Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.