The Senior Backend Engineer will architect and maintain scalable backend services, focusing on performance, reliability, and team independence, while mentoring engineers and guiding technical design.
Position Summary
What we’re looking for
Responsibilities
Nice to have
Logistics
Compensation
We’re hiring a Senior Backend Engineer to be the scaling expert behind our core systems. You’ll drive architectural decisions that balance “what must work today” with “what must scale tomorrow,” owning systems that are low-latency, resilient, and cost-aware.
- TS-first backend: Expert in Node/Typescript services; bonus points for production Go.
- Systems & scale: Deep grasp of memory management, distributed systems, durable execution, and edge functions.
- Queues & state: Hands-on with Temporal (or equivalent durable workflows) and Redis at scale.
- Cloud & reliability: Comfortable shipping/operating in modern cloud environments with strong observability habits.
- LLM-aware: Familiarity with LLM integrations and their operational quirks is a plus.
- Product sense: You make pragmatic tradeoffs, communicate risk clearly, and choose designs that unblock the roadmap.
- Opinionated: Deep level of understanding of the technological landscape, making both high level system and granular code design decisions based on understanding rather than preference - diving deep on unknown patterns in order to build the best product.
- Architect, build, and operate backend services that are fast, fault-tolerant, and easy to evolve.
- Define service boundaries, data models, and contracts that keep teams moving independently.
- Establish performance baselines and SLOs; design for durability and graceful degradation.
- Lead technical design reviews and mentor engineers across code quality, testing, and ops.
- Own critical systems: queue orchestration (Temporal), caching (Redis), and infra automation.
- Prior work with agentic/LLM workflows
- Compensation: $165K - $250K salary, $100K-200K equivalent in new hire equity (4 year vest)
- Location: New York City. We are a fully in-office team working out of Midtown Manhattan Monday through Friday. We allow for WFH days when anyone is traveling, but we do not allow for permanent remote work.
- Benefits:
- Generous health, dental, and vision insurance
- 401k with 3% automatic contribution (no vesting)
- Paid Lunches
- Wellness and Citi Bike benefit
The base pay range for this role is $165,000 – $250,000 per year.
Raylu New York, New York, USA Office
New York, New York, United States
Similar Jobs
Cloud • Computer Vision • Information Technology • Sales • Security • Cybersecurity
Build and operate a scalable integrations platform for data connectors ingesting petabytes/day. Design and develop distributed, multi-region systems in Go/Python, implement connectors (REST, WebSocket, file), ensure high availability, optimize performance/cost, support production incidents, and drive cross-team platform initiatives and SDK improvements.
Top Skills:
AWSAzureEdrFirewallsGCPGoIds/IpsPythonRest ApisSdksSIEMWebsockets
Cloud • Computer Vision • Information Technology • Sales • Security • Cybersecurity
Design, build, and scale foundational platform services to ingest, process, and route internet-scale security events. Develop fault-tolerant microservices, CI/CD and DevOps tooling for detection-as-code, evolve unified detection management, drive observability and policy features, mentor engineers, and collaborate cross-functionally to deliver real-time detection generation.
Top Skills:
AWSCassandraFlinkGitGoJava8KafkaKubernetesOpensearchPostgresPythonRedisRocksdb
Fintech • Payments • Financial Services
Build and own low-latency, highly scalable backend APIs and data systems for transaction enrichment. Design infrastructure, implement data pipelines, debug production issues, and collaborate cross-functionally to deliver reliable products processing billions of transactions.
Top Skills:
AWSPythonRest ApisSQL
What you need to know about the NYC Tech Scene
As the undisputed financial capital of the world, New York City is an epicenter of startup funding activity. The city has a thriving fintech scene and is a major player in verticals ranging from AI to biotech, cybersecurity and digital media. It also has universities like NYU, Columbia and Cornell Tech attracting students and researchers from across the globe, providing the ecosystem with a constant influx of world-class talent. And its East Coast location and three international airports make it a perfect spot for European companies establishing a foothold in the United States.
Key Facts About NYC Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 549,200; 6% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
- Major Tech Employers: Capgemini, Bloomberg, IBM, Spotify
- Key Industries: Artificial intelligence, Fintech
- Funding Landscape: $25.5 billion in venture capital funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
- Notable Investors: Greycroft, Thrive Capital, Union Square Ventures, FirstMark Capital, Tiger Global Management, Tribeca Venture Partners, Insight Partners, Two Sigma Ventures
- Research Centers and Universities: Columbia University, New York University, Fordham University, CUNY, AI Now Institute, Flatiron Institute, C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics, NASA Space Radiation Laboratory


