Principal Software Architect

Recrew AI; Gurugram District; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 7,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Recrew AI is seeking a Backend Architect to own the end-to-end architecture of a large-scale digital media platform. You will define API strategy across REST, GraphQL, and gRPC, design media workflows, and guide cloud infrastructure decisions.

The role requires hands-on leadership across multiple engineering teams and a focus on reliability and performance. You will work with product leaders to ensure rapid, reliable feature delivery at scale, while shaping architecture standards, data ownership

Qualifications

• 8–10 years of software engineering experience
• 5+ years designing and operating distributed production systems
• Strong Go and/or Node.js architecture experience in production at scale
• Proven experience designing systems that handle high traffic and large data volumes
• Hands-on with SQL/NoSQL, Redis, Kafka, search platforms, object storage, and cloud services
• Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud infrastructure
• Observability, SLOs, incident response, capacity planning, and disaster recovery practices
• Technical leadership across engineering teams without direct people-management dependency

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end technical architecture for backend and media platform ecosystem
• Define API strategy across REST, GraphQL, gRPC, event-driven communication, and partner APIs
• Create architecture standards for service boundaries, data ownership, caching, idempotency, retries, and backwards compatibility
• Address large-scale media concerns including metadata models, transcoding workflows, live/on-demand delivery, CDN strategy
• Establish patterns for Kubernetes, CI/CD, observability, tracing, logging, secrets management; set SLOs and disaster recovery plans
• Lead architectural decisions across databases, Redis, Kafka, search systems, object storage, and streaming platforms
• Guide cost optimization across cloud compute, storage, CDN, and third-party integrations; evaluate build-vs-buy and modernization
• Remain hands-on through prototypes, code reviews, and PoCs; mentor engineers across teams

Skills

Go

Node.js

Distributed systems

SQL/NoSQL

Kafka

Kubernetes

Docker

CI/CD

Cloud platforms

Observability

Tools

Kafka

Job description

Type: Full-time

About Company

One of India's largest private FM radio networks, reaching 40 million+ listeners weekly. The company broadcasts across 49 cities, 1,000+ towns, and 50,000 villages.

It is the only private FM station broadcasting from Jammu & Kashmir, with an international presence in Singapore and Bhutan. Its digital platform extends the brand into curated lifestyle, music, and news content.

Backed by 18+ years of broadcast heritage, the company is now building an ambitious super-app for millions of users. A team of 740+ media professionals drives this blend of legacy broadcasting and digital innovation.

Position Overview

The company is scaling a large-scale digital media platform spanning audio, video, news, short-form content, microdrama, and live/on-demand audience experiences. The Backend Architect will own end-to-end platform architecture — from API strategy and service design to media workflows, observability, and cloud infrastructure — partnering with engineering and product leaders to enable rapid, reliable feature delivery at scale.

Role & Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end technical architecture for the company's backend and media platform ecosystem, covering content ingestion, delivery, discovery, personalization, and partner integrations
• Define API strategy across REST, GraphQL, gRPC, event-driven communication, BFF composition, partner APIs, and internal platforms
• Create architecture standards covering service boundaries, data ownership, consistency, caching, idempotency, retries, rate limits, and backwards compatibility
• Address large-scale media concerns including metadata models, transcoding workflows, live/on-demand delivery, CDN strategy, origin shielding, cache invalidation, and regional availability
• Establish patterns for Kubernetes, CI/CD, observability, distributed tracing, logging, secrets management, and operational readiness; set SLOs, capacity models, and disaster recovery plans
• Lead architectural decisions across SQL/NoSQL databases, Redis, Kafka, search systems, object storage, and streaming platforms
• Guide cost optimization across cloud compute, storage, CDN/bandwidth usage, and third-party integrations; evaluate build-vs-buy and legacy modernization decisions
• Remain hands-on through prototypes, critical service design, code reviews, and proof-of-concepts; mentor staff, principal, senior, and mid-level engineers across multiple teams

Must Have Criteria

• 8–10 years of software engineering experience, with at least 5 years designing and operating distributed production systems
• Strong Go and/or Node.js architecture experience in production at scale, with Go capability preferred for core future services
• Proven experience designing systems that handle high traffic, large data volumes, concurrency, and latency-sensitive workloads
• Hands-on proficiency with SQL/NoSQL databases, Redis, Kafka, search platforms, object storage, and cloud services
• Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud infrastructure for deploying and operating production backend services
• Demonstrated experience establishing observability, SLOs, incident response, capacity planning, and disaster recovery practices
• Proven technical leadership across multiple engineering teams without direct people-management dependency

Nice to Have

• Hands-on media architecture experience spanning encoding/transcoding, CMS, metadata, search, CDN delivery, DRM, or live/on-demand workflows
• Experience with Backend for Frontend (BFF) architecture and GraphQL/REST composition across web and mobile clients
• Experience with Go-first platforms and modernization from Node.js or legacy monoliths
• Experience with service mesh, edge/CDN platforms, or multi-region architectures
• Experience influencing engineering organizations through architecture review boards, technical RFCs, or design authorities

What We Offer

• End-to-end architectural ownership of a large-scale digital media platform serving millions of users across audio, video, news, and short-form content verticals
• High-impact individual-contributor role with direct influence over platform-wide engineering standards and technology direction
• Collaboration with engineering and product leaders in a fast-moving environment with real scope to modernize and build at scale
• Opportunity to shape the backend foundation of the company's digital future — bridging 18+ years of broadcast heritage with a modern, cloud-native platform