Backend architect

Sytrex; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Braven is seeking an experienced Backend Architect to own the system’s core architecture in San Francisco. You will make critical decisions on how the backend is split, how parts communicate, and how the domain remains correct and auditable as it grows.

You will drive changes in a live production environment, ensuring safety, speed, and reliability for our clients while setting high engineering standards. This role requires deep data modeling and strong English communication.

Qualifications

• Designed the core of a production system that others build on.
• Deep experience with data modeling, databases, and live data changes.
• Able to explain tradeoffs and justify architectural decisions.
• Code-based architecture with shipping discipline.
• Curious to understand complex problems and drive clarity.

Responsibilities

• Own the backend architecture: how the system is split and communicates.
• Model a complex domain to ensure correctness and auditability.
• Make changes in a live system without destabilizing production.
• Evolve production systems step by step with client impact in mind.
• Raise the bar for engineering practices to speed and safe-scale teams.

Skills

Backend architecture

Data modeling

TypeScript

Fastify

Bun

Distributed systems

English communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS / related field

Tools

TypeScript

Bun

Fastify

Job description

About Braven

We build AI for the specialty insurance industry, one of the biggest markets in the world, still running on email and spreadsheets. We think that’s a once in a generation opportunity, and we’re building a billion dollar company on top of it.

The role

You’ll report directly to Javier, our Head of Engineering. We built fast to find product market fit, and it worked: our product runs in production for large clients. Now the foundation has to carry much more: more clients, more products, more engineers and more agents building on it at the same time. Your job is to make the core of the system solid, clear and easy to change. You’ll make the architecture decisions that everything else depends on, and then carry them into a live system without stopping it.

How we work

We’re hackers. We find ways to solve hard problems. We work with intensity, respect, honesty, kindness. That matters when you’re working this hard. But this is not a job for everyone. It’s demanding, uncertain, and intense. If you want to live the race of a high growth startup, aiming to build something big, this might be the best decision you ever make.

What you'll do

• Own the backend architecture: how the system is split, who owns what, and how the parts talk to each other.
• Model a complex domain so it’s correct, auditable, and hard to break.
• Turn a system that grew fast into one where a change in one place doesn’t break another.
• Evolve a live production system step by step, with real clients depending on it every day.
• Make the rest of the team, people and agents alike, faster and safer by setting the bar for how we build.

What we're looking for

• You have designed the core of a production system that others build on, and you’ve lived with the consequences of your decisions.
• You’re deep in data: modeling, databases, consistency, and changing data that’s already live.
• You simplify. You’d rather delete than add, and you can explain the tradeoffs of every decision.
• You build things. Your architecture ships as code. Show us, don’t tell us.
• You’re curious. When something doesn’t make sense, you can’t let it go until you understand it.
• You move fast without breaking what matters. You know when something needs to be right and when it just needs to exist.
• You already work with AI every day and want to take that to the next level.
• Strong general engineering. We are a TypeScript shop (Bun, Fastify), but strong engineers from other stacks pick it up fast.
• Strong written and spoken English.
• Nice to have: insurance, fintech, or other domains where data has to be exact and auditable.