Backend Architect

Leantycoon Consulting Services; Delhi; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 8,000,000; Full time

Job summary

BigFM is building a media super-app that unifies video, audio, radio, micro-drama, news and commerce on a single platform. We are hiring a Backend Architect to own the technical architecture for our backend platform spanning 22+ services across content, discovery, commerce and platform APIs.

This is a foundational, individual-contributor technical leadership role. You will define how a single backend platform scales to serve six content and commerce verticals, setting the technical direction and

Qualifications

• Extensive backend engineering experience with architecture exposure.
• Distributed systems design across multiple services and APIs.
• Proven ability to design scalable platforms serving multiple product verticals.
• Strong leadership without direct management responsibilities.

Responsibilities

• Define backend architecture and platform standards.
• Own security, deployment, and performance strategies.
• Collaborate with Frontend Architect and Platform Engineer to align contracts.

Skills

Backend engineering

Architecture leadership

Distributed systems

API design

Cloud & DevOps

Security & data protection

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

CI/CD pipelines

GCP

AWS

Azure

Job description

Backend Architect

• Department: Engineering
• Reports To: Head of Engineering
• Employment Type: Full-time Individual Contributor (IC)
• Function: Backend Platform

About the Role

BigFM is building a media super-app bringing together video, audio, radio, micro-drama, news, and commerce on a single, unified platform. We are hiring a Backend Architect to own the technical architecture for our backend platformspanning 22+ services across content, discovery, commerce, and platform APIs.

This is a foundational, individual-contributor technical leadership role. You will define how a single backend platform scales to serve six content and commerce verticals, setting the technical direction and standards that the wider Backend Engineering team builds against.

Key Responsibilities

Architectural Leadership & Strategy

• Platform Architecture: Define and own the backend technical architecture across core platform, content & discovery, commerce & growth, and platform services.
• Technology & Standards: Make foundational technology decisions (service boundaries, data modeling, API design, caching, scalability strategies) and establish technical standards and code quality bars.
• Future-Proofing: Own backend performance, scalability, and technical debt strategy as the platform scales beyond Phase 1. Evaluate and introduce new tools to improve velocity, performance, or maintainability.

Core Service & System Ownership

• Core Services: Own the architecture for critical services including authentication, user profiles, feeds, recommendations, search, and content APIs.
• Security & Operations: Define application-level security standards (authentication, authorization, data protection) and own the deployment architecture and release strategy in partnership with the Platform Engineer.
• Quality Assurance: Conduct architecture and code reviews for high-impact changes.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Contract & Integration: Partner closely with the Frontend Architect and Platform Engineer to define clean API contracts, integration patterns, and platform guardrails.
• Execution Roadmap: Work in lockstep with the Tech Lead to translate overall architectural direction into a deliverable engineering roadmap.

Required Qualifications

• Experience: 810 years of backend engineering experience, including 2–3 years in a formal architecture, Staff, or Principal Engineer role.
• Distributed Systems Architecture: Deep, hands-on expertise designing, building, and scaling distributed backend systems and RESTful/GraphQL APIs.
• Multi-Vertical Platform Design: Proven track record architecting backend platforms that serve multiple distinct products or business verticals from a shared core service layer.
• Programming Mastery: High proficiency in at least one modern backend language used in production at scale (e.g., Go, Java, Node.js, or Python).
• System Design & Performance: Deep expertise in data modeling, caching strategies, service decomposition, and navigating system scalability trade-offs for high read/write throughput consumer products.
• Cloud & DevOps Infrastructure: Hands-on experience with major cloud providers (GCP, AWS, or Azure) along with modern deployment and orchestration tools (Kubernetes, Docker, CI/CD pipelines).
• Application Security: Strong foundation in security best practices, including authentication (AuthN), authorization (AuthZ), data protection, and secure API design.
• Technical Leadership & Influence: Demonstrated ability to operate as a high-impact individual contributor, driving technical alignment and leading through authority rather than management.
• Communication: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills with the ability to document, articulate, and evangelize complex architectural decisions to both engineers and leadership.

Preferred Qualifications

• Domain Experience: Background in a media, content streaming, micro-drama, or commerce super-app environment.
• 01 Platform Building: Experience at a fast-growing startup architecting systems from greenfield state to production scale.
• Data & Discovery Tech: Familiarity with recommendation engines, search infrastructure (e.g., Elasticsearch), or large-scale content distribution (CDNs).
• Cloud-Native Stack: Experience with cloud-native, microservices-driven architectures (GCP preferred).