Founding Backend Architect for AI Gateway and Microservices

Jobtailor; Greater London; On-site; GBP 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Jobtailor is seeking an experienced backend engineer to design, build, and own core infrastructure powering a high-throughput AI gateway. You will shape a pragmatic microservices system with a Go-based gateway and Python services, partnering with founders to translate product vision into scalable engineering.

You will optimize distributed systems, APIs, and data stores for sub-20ms latency, using Kubernetes in production and thoughtful caching.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of backend experience with compiled languages, preferably Go.
• Strong distributed systems design and scalability skills.
• Hands-on Kubernetes in production.
• Deep knowledge of SQL/NoSQL databases and caching.
• Experience building API platforms and high-throughput services.
• Experience with performance profiling for latency-sensitive systems.
• Startup experience or greenfield projects preferred.
• Strong concurrency understanding and pragmatic approach.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and own core backend infrastructure powering a high-throughput, production-grade AI gateway serving billions of tokens per day.
• Architect and evolve a pragmatic microservices system — including a core LLM gateway in Go and auxiliary ML/AI services in Python.
• Make critical decisions around distributed systems design, database selection, caching strategies, and API platform architecture.
• Profile and optimize performance for high-traffic, latency-sensitive systems (sub-20ms SLAs).
• Work hands-on with Kubernetes to deploy, manage, and scale services reliably.
• Redefine and evolve the tech stack as the product and team grow — you will be a key voice in those decisions.
• Collaborate directly with founders to translate product vision into robust, scalable engineering solutions.

Skills

Go (Golang)

Distributed systems

Kubernetes

API design

Performance optimization

Greenfield startup experience

Tools

SQL/NoSQL databases

Job description

Jobtailor is seeking an experienced backend engineer to design, build, and own core infrastructure powering a high-throughput AI gateway. You will shape a pragmatic microservices system with a Go-based gateway and Python services, partnering with founders to translate product vision into scalable engineering.

You will optimize distributed systems, APIs, and data stores for sub-20ms latency, using Kubernetes in production and thoughtful caching.