Principal Backend Engineer

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

📋 Description

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable and dependable backend services that handle financial transactions and serve Jeeves customers in over 20 countries.

• Write clean, testable, and production-ready code in Go, Python, or Node.js/TypeScript; engage actively in design and code review processes.

• Create and utilize RESTful and GraphQL APIs; plan inter-service communication using gRPC, message queues, and event-driven architectures.

• Design and optimize both relational and non-relational database schemas (PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis) for accuracy, performance, and scalability.

• Take ownership of backend features from beginning to end — including scoping, technical design, deployment, monitoring, and iterations.

• Apply security best practices: authentication, authorization, input validation, and data protection across distributed services.

• Integrate LLM API calls (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic) into backend services as product features — such as spend categorization, document parsing, or natural language workflows — ensuring these integrations are reliable, observable, and cost-effective.

• Develop backend pipelines that safely consume AI-generated outputs: validate structured outputs, manage fallback scenarios, and design graceful degradation for when AI services are unavailable or yield low-confidence results.

• Collaborate with AI and data science teams to incorporate model outputs into backend APIs — linking experimental AI initiatives with production systems.

• Use AI coding tools (GitHub Copilot, Claude, Cursor, etc.) proficiently as part of your daily development workflow.

• Instrument services with structured logging, distributed tracing, and metrics to ensure full operational visibility.

• Participate in on-call rotations; respond to production incidents and contribute to post-incident evaluations.

• Assist in enhancing CI/CD pipelines, testing infrastructure, and deployment methodologies.

• Work closely with engineering, product, compliance, and data teams across various time zones and regions — communicating in both English and Spanish or Portuguese as needed.

• Contribute to a globally distributed engineering culture through comprehensive documentation, asynchronous design reviews, and constructive pull request feedback.

• Provide your regional insights in product and engineering discussions — our LATAM customers have unique requirements, and engineers familiar with those markets enhance our product.

⛳️ Requirements

• Over 5 years of professional backend engineering experience in building and managing production systems.

• Fluent in English — professional proficiency is required for daily interactions with global teams in both written and spoken forms.

• Fluent in Spanish or Portuguese — essential for collaboration with LATAM teammates, customers, and operational partners.

• Strong expertise in at least one backend programming language: Go, Python, or Node.js/TypeScript.

• Experience in designing and developing RESTful APIs, microservices, and event-driven backend systems.

• Solid understanding of relational databases (PostgreSQL preferred): schema design, query optimization, and data modeling.

• Familiarity with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure), containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and CI/CD workflows.

• Proven ability to reliably integrate third-party APIs in production — including error handling, retry logic, and observability.

• Experience working on globally distributed teams across various time zones and regions.

• Comfortable utilizing AI tools as part of daily engineering tasks — integrating LLM API outputs into backend services and using AI coding assistants fluently.

• Background in fintech, financial services, payments, or a regulated industry — knowledge of ledger systems, payment rails, or financial compliance (KYC/AML, PCI-DSS) is a significant advantage.

• Previous experience in a startup or high-growth scale-up, capable of thriving in ambiguity without extensive process support.

• Experience with multi-currency systems or cross-border payment processing.

• Familiar with message queue systems (Kafka, RabbitMQ) and event-driven architecture.

• Global work experience — prior roles in companies operating across multiple countries and regulatory environments.

• Proficiency in both Spanish and Portuguese is a notable additional asset.

🏝️ Benefits

• Join a dynamic and innovative team that values your contributions and insights.

• Opportunity to work on cutting-edge technologies in the fintech space.

• Flexible work arrangements with a focus on work-life balance.

• Competitive salary and benefits package, including health and wellness programs.

• Continuous learning and professional development opportunities.