Mid-Level Backend Engineer

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in India.

📋 Description

• As our Backend Engineer, you will report directly to the Engineering Manager and collaborate closely with the Product team to create new products, enhance existing ones, and manage deployments and architecture. Here, you won't just handle tickets.

• You will delve into the inner workings of the system, questioning the "why" before the "how," and pursue problems beyond surface-level to uncover their true causes. Curiosity is essential for our team's success; it's a core part of our development process.

• You will design, build, and maintain APIs, services, and systems, as well as troubleshoot production issues across various levels of the stack.

• Close collaboration with our Business, Product, and Data Science teams will enable you to identify and resolve customer pain points at scale.

• You will design, develop, implement, and deploy enterprise-level, high-availability web application platforms with the support of Portcast's design team.

• Your role will include creating a technology infrastructure that operates efficiently at scale, allowing you to design and refine system architecture.

• You will take ownership of the design and implementation of our product's handling of real-time data at scale, from event ingestion across numerous carrier sources, through data normalization, to ML-powered risk and ETA models, and ultimately to user-visible recommendations for our enterprise customers.

• Your focus will be on building features that customers genuinely use, enhancing the internal tools the team relies on, and establishing alerting and monitoring systems that identify issues before they affect customers. You are a builder at heart, with the discernment to know what is worthwhile to construct.

• You will make architectural trade-offs clear and defensible.

• You will instrument your creations, identify genuine bottlenecks, and choose solutions that will withstand the next 10× growth, not just the upcoming sprint. You measure before optimizing, ensuring your metrics are reproducible.

⛳️ Requirements

• A Bachelor's or Master's Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent professional experience in the field.

• Work Experience: At least 4+ years in a technical role focusing on designing, developing, and delivering technical solutions, as well as building production systems.

• Experience Building or Architecting at Scale: You have been either an early engineering hire at a startup, taking a technical product from inception to scale, or you have managed real system design at a FAANG-tier engineering organization, where you defended architectural decisions in actual design reviews rather than just contributing to someone else's plans. We are eager to hear your learnings and the trade-offs you would approach differently today.

• First Principles Thinker: When discussing a previous decision, you articulate the trade-offs before mentioning tools. You identify constraints, alternatives considered, and the reasoning behind your choices. You opt for a more efficient use of existing tools instead of reaching for a new framework.

• Naturally Curious: You dig deeper rather than strictly adhering to instructions. When confronted with unexpected outcomes in the system, you pursue the reasoning behind them, not just a fix. You regard every layer of the stack as worthy of understanding and ask insightful questions early on.

• Expertise in System Architecture: You comprehend how various components of a system interact and possess strong experience in building scalable products or systems. You are adept at managing numerous moving pieces and data sources, demonstrating meticulous attention to detail. You readily generate ideas and provide suggestions for improving the tech stack and feature development.

• Proficiency with AI Tools: You leverage AI tools (such as Copilot, Cursor, Claude, etc.) to enhance your speed while recognizing their limitations. You critically assess generated output rather than simply pasting it. You can defend a code path suggested by AI or override it with insights the AI could not understand. You flag AI-assisted decisions in code reviews and submissions proactively. We view AI as a tool that accelerates thoughtful analysis, not a shortcut to bypass it.

• Team Player: You have experience collaborating within a diverse, dynamic, and cross-cultural team. This role allows you to champion engineering excellence within the team and engage in significant architectural discussions. You are a hands-on, goal-oriented engineer who adheres to milestones and software guidelines, embracing agile principles.

• Effective Communicator: You can convey complex ideas clearly, whether in real-time remote brainstorming or in written explanations of technical decisions. While you may hold strong opinions, you thoughtfully engage with differing perspectives in disagreements and are willing to compromise when necessary.

• Familiarity with Tech Stack: Ideally, you are skilled in Python-based backend programming and web frameworks such as Flask and Amazon Web Services. You are capable of designing RESTful APIs and are aware of best practices. Experience with Docker, Git, Elasticsearch, Spark, and CI/CD is advantageous. Ultimately, the specific stack is less important than your reasoning about it; strong engineers in any stack can rapidly adapt to ours.

🏝️ Benefits

• Globally distributed, remote-first flexibility: Work with a fully distributed team spanning Asia and Europe, rooted in trust, accountability, and collaboration. Our diverse perspectives drive innovation and fuel our curiosity.

• Tech-first team: Collaborate with like-minded individuals who share a passion for solving complex problems through technology.

• Accelerated growth: Shorten your learning curve within a few years by taking ownership of the web app from day one. We aim to position our company as the leading B2B market player in predictive global supply chains, and you will play a significant role in our narrative.

• Visible impact: With a lean organizational structure, your contributions will be effective from the outset. You will witness the direct impact of your ideas and decisions in advancing the business.