Principal Server Engineer

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Serbia, +4 more countries.

📋 Description

• Develop, construct, and sustain Go/Python backend services for real-time, high-traffic gaming applications.

• Take charge of database schema design and optimize query performance within PostgreSQL environments.

• Implement a horizontal scaling strategy by enhancing CPU/memory efficiency and minimizing lock contention.

• Analyze and fix memory leaks, CPU spikes, and deadlocks in a production setting.

• Lead investigations into the root causes of performance problems and outages, managing the process from detection to resolution.

• Design and maintain in-memory caching/state layers utilizing Redis, KeyDB, or Memcached.

• Conduct load testing to pinpoint breaking points prior to release.

• Manage backend systems that support live games with over 1 million daily active users (DAU).

• Collaborate closely with the engineering team on schema design and incident management.

⛳️ Requirements

• Over 8 years of professional experience.

• Extensive expertise in Go and Python, covering language internals, execution models, and performance optimization.

• Strong proficiency in PostgreSQL, including scalable schema design, query plan evaluation, and index strategy enhancement.

• Demonstrated experience in scaling systems that handle over 350,000 DAU.

• Practical experience in profiling to identify and resolve memory leaks, CPU spikes, and deadlocks.

• At least 2 specific examples of complex production performance challenges or outages, detailing root cause analysis and resolution strategies.

• A minimum of 2 released production projects where you played a key role as a backend engineer managing live traffic.

• Hands-on experience with caching systems like Redis, KeyDB, or Memcached.

• Strong judgment in TDD/BDD and practical experience with load testing tools such as Artillery.

• Experience with the Nakama framework, including custom Go/Lua modules, matchmakers, storage engines, and real-time multiplayer sockets.

• Practical experience deploying, monitoring, and scaling serverless/container services on GCP/Google App Engine.

• Familiarity with CI/CD and DevOps practices using GitHub Actions or GitLab CI (preferred).

• Monitoring and alerting experience with tools like Prometheus or Datadog (preferred).

• A solid understanding of networking protocols, including WebSockets, gRPC/HTTP2, and UDP/TCP tuning for low-latency real-time systems (preferred).

🏝️ Benefits

• Competitive tax-free salaries in USD.

• Paid Time Off.

• Annual Performance Reviews.