Full-Stack Engineer - Backend & Technical Delivery

Instinctive Studio; India; On-site; INR 900,000 - 1,400,000; Full time

Job summary

Instinctive Studio, a Bangalore-based startup, seeks a hands‑on Full-Stack Engineer with strong backend and systems architecture experience. You will contribute directly to the codebase while coordinating three to four junior developers.

You’ll explain architecture, risks and trade‑offs clearly and concisely to a semi‑technical founder. You’ll build and ship production features using TypeScript, Node.js, Express, React and Next.js, design APIs and schemas, and manage deployments and environment

Qualifications

• 3+ years building and maintaining commercial web applications.
• Strong experience with Node.js, Express and TypeScript.
• Good working knowledge of React and Next.js.
• Solid understanding of systems architecture, API design and database modelling.
• Experience with MongoDB and/or PostgreSQL.
• Familiarity with authentication, caching, queues and third‑party integrations.
• Working knowledge of cloud deployment, Docker, CI/CD and Git workflows.
• Experience reviewing code and giving developers actionable feedback.
• Ability to break complex requirements into well‑scoped engineering tasks.
• Experience coordinating work across a small development team.

Responsibilities

• Build and ship production features using TypeScript, Node.js, Express, React and Next.js.
• Design APIs, database schemas, authentication systems and background processes.
• Translate product requirements into practical technical architecture.
• Diagnose production issues, improve performance and refactor existing modules.
• Make sensible architectural decisions without overengineering straightforward problems.
• Handle deployments, patches, rollbacks and environment configuration.
• Coordinate the work of three to four junior developers.
• Break larger features into clear tasks with dependencies and acceptance criteria.
• Maintain and prioritise engineering work in project tools.
• Review progress and communicate risks and scope changes.

Skills

Node.js

Express

TypeScript

React

Next.js

API design

Systems architecture

Database modelling

Code review

Team coordination

Tools

Docker

CI/CD

Git workflows

Cloud deployment

Job description

Instinctive Studio is a Bangalore-based startup building digital products across education, enterprise tools and AI.

We’re looking for a hands-on Full-Stack Engineer with strong backend and systems architecture experience. You’ll contribute directly to the codebase while coordinating the day-to‑day work of three to four junior developers.

This is not an HR or traditional people‑management role. You won’t handle salaries, appraisals or performance reviews. Your responsibility is technical delivery: breaking down work, maintaining the task pipeline, reviewing code, unblocking developers and keeping projects moving.

You’ll work closely with a semi-technical founder, so you should be able to explain architecture, risks and trade‑offs clearly and concisely.

WHAT YOU’LL BE DOING

Engineering and Architecture

• Build and ship production features using TypeScript, Node.js, Express, React and Next.js
• Design APIs, database schemas, authentication systems and background processes
• Translate product requirements into practical technical architecture
• Diagnose production issues, improve performance and refactor existing modules
• Make sensible architectural decisions without overengineering straightforward problems
• Handle deployments, patches, rollbacks and environment configuration
• Technical Delivery Coordination

Coordinate the work of three to four junior developers

• Break larger features into clear tasks with dependencies and acceptance criteria
• Maintain and prioritise engineering work in Linear and Notion
• Identify blockers and unclear requirements before they delay delivery
• Review progress and keep the founder informed about risks, decisions and changes in scope
• Ensure work moves properly through development, review, testing and deployment

Code Quality and Engineering Processes

• Review pull requests for correctness, security and maintainability
• Use CodeRabbit as part of the review process while applying your own engineering judgement
• Define, document and improve development SOPs as the company grows
• Establish practical standards for branches, pull requests, testing, releases and documentation
• Maintain coding conventions, architecture notes and release checklists
• Help junior developers improve their engineering habits and use AI tools responsibly

DevOps and Agentic Engineering

• Work with Vercel, AWS or Azure, Docker and CI/CD pipelines
• Monitor logs, errors, uptime and application performance
• Use coding agents to explore codebases, implement scoped work, refactor, test and document
• Review and verify agent-generated code before it reaches production
• Help define effective agentic engineering workflows for the wider development team

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

• 3+ years building and maintaining commercial web applications
• Strong experience with Node.js, Express and TypeScript
• Good working knowledge of React and Next.js
• Solid understanding of systems architecture, API design and database modelling
• Experience with MongoDB and/or PostgreSQL
• Familiarity with authentication, caching, queues and third‑party integrations
• Working knowledge of cloud deployment, Docker, CI/CD and Git workflows
• Experience reviewing code and giving developers actionable feedback
• Ability to break complex requirements into well‑scoped engineering tasks
• Experience coordinating work across a small development team
• Practical experience with coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or similar
• Clear written and spoken communication
• Comfortable working in a startup where some processes already exist and others still need to be created
• Strong ownership: you notice gaps, raise risks and help solve them

NICE TO HAVE

• Production experience with both Next.js and Vue.js
• Experience deploying and maintaining Node.js services on AWS or Azure
• Familiarity with Vercel deployments, previews and environment management
• Experience with Docker, GitHub Actions and CI/CD pipelines
• Familiarity with infrastructure‑as‑code and cloud configuration
• Experience with Redis, queues, background workers or real‑time systems
• Familiarity with application monitoring, structured logging and error tracking
• Experience integrating AI services, vector databases or agentic product features
• Previous experience defining engineering SOPs or mentoring junior developers