Backend Lead (Node.js)

Zeely Inc.; United States; Remote; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote-first

Paid day offs

Sick leaves

Performance reviews

Finance consultations

Job summary

Zeely AI is seeking a Backend Lead to own and scale our AI-powered backend platform in a remote-first environment. You will steer architecture, drive team growth, and oversee critical services powering a fast-growing US-market product used by millions.

You will lead with hands-on expertise in Node.js, NestJS, microservices, PostgreSQL, Redis, and AWS, while mentoring engineers and collaborating with cross-functional teams to deliver high-impact AI capabilities.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of commercial experience with Node.js.
• 3+ years in a Lead/Engineering Manager role with people management.
• 3+ years hands-on experience with NestJS.
• Proven experience designing microservice architectures in production.
• Deep expertise in PostgreSQL and Redis.
• Experience with ORMs such as Prisma and Drizzle.
• Hands-on experience with AWS services (EKS, RDS, SQS, S3, CloudWatch, OpenSearch).
• Strong Docker expertise.
• Experience designing reliable, scalable distributed systems.
• Upper-Intermediate English or higher.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Backend Department, driving team growth, planning, estimations, code reviews, mentoring, and engineers’ performance management.
• Define the architectural vision and ensure reliability, scalability, and performance of the backend platform.
• Develop and evolve our AI orchestration layer across multiple models and providers, optimizing generation quality, latency, and cost efficiency.
• Own the evolution of the AI Gateway — the core platform component powering text, image, voice, avatar, and video generation.
• Scale infrastructure and backend services to support product growth and increasing workloads.
• Maintain high engineering standards in code quality, security, observability, and operational excellence.
• Deliver strategic AI initiatives, including our proprietary RAG pipeline, MCP integrations, and AI agent capabilities.
• Collaborate with Frontend, Mobile, QA, AI Engineering, and DevOps teams to achieve business goals.
• Partner with the Principal Engineer on infrastructure capacity planning and cost optimization.

Skills

Node.js

Team leadership

NestJS

Microservices

PostgreSQL

Redis

ORMs: Prisma/Drizzle

AWS services

Docker

On-call & incident mgmt

English (Upper-Int)

Tools

Kubernetes

Terraform

GCP

Cloudflare

Job description

Join us as a Backend Lead and drive the development of the backend platform behind one of the fastest-growing AI products in the US market. We are looking for a strong technical leader who combines deep expertise in high-load system architecture with hands-on experience in building and scaling engineering teams.

In this role, you will have true ownership of our AI Gateway, generative pipelines, and mission-critical backend services powering a product already trusted by more than 1.5 million users.

Zeely AI is an AI-powered platform that helps small businesses create viral UGC videos, advertising banners, and high-performing campaigns across Meta and TikTok, making it easier for entrepreneurs to grow and scale their businesses.

Your key responsibilities:

• Lead the Backend Department, driving team growth, planning, estimations, code reviews, mentoring, and engineers’ performance management

• Define the architectural vision and ensure the reliability, scalability, and performance of the backend platform

• Develop and evolve our AI orchestration layer across multiple models and providers, optimizing generation quality, latency, and cost efficiency

• Own the evolution of the AI Gateway — the core platform component powering text, image, voice, avatar, and video generation

• Scale infrastructure and backend services to support product growth and increasing workloads

• Maintain high engineering standards in code quality, security, observability, and operational excellence

• Deliver strategic AI initiatives, including our proprietary RAG pipeline, MCP integrations, and AI agent capabilities

• Collaborate closely with Frontend, Mobile, QA, AI Engineering, and DevOps teams to achieve business goals

• Partner with the Principal Engineer on infrastructure capacity planning and cost optimization

What we’re looking for:

• 7+ years of commercial experience with Node.js

• 3+ years of experience in a Lead, Team Lead, or Engineering Manager role with direct people management responsibilities

• 3+ years of hands‑on experience with NestJS

• Proven experience designing and evolving microservice architectures in production environments

• Deep expertise in PostgreSQL and Redis

• Experience working with ORMs such as Prisma and Drizzle

• Hands‑on experience with AWS services, including EKS, RDS, SQS, S3, CloudWatch, and OpenSearch

• Strong Docker expertise

• Experience designing reliable, scalable, and observable distributed systems

• Solid understanding of on‑call processes and incident management practices

• Upper-Intermediate English level or higher

Nice to have:

• Active AWS Architect or Developer certification

• Experience with Terraform

• Experience building high-load systems and optimizing cost/latency trade‑offs

• Payment systems integration experience

• Backend development experience for mobile applications (iOS/Android) and web products

• Experience with GCP and Cloudflare

• Experience hiring engineers and building processes in fast-scaling organizations

AI expertise we value:

• Commercial experience integrating AI APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and others)

• Understanding of multi-model orchestration, including routing, fallback strategies, and cost/latency trade‑offs

• Experience with AI-assisted development and code review tools (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, etc.)

• Understanding of RAG, embeddings, MCP, and AI agents (hands‑on experience is a strong plus)

Why it’s exciting to work with us:

• Work with cutting‑edge technologies and contribute to building AI-powered tools

• Join a strong A-level team that motivates you to grow and achieve more

• Remote-first approach: work from anywhere, with the option to visit our offices in Warsaw and Kyiv

• Paid day offs and sick leaves - we care about your work‑life balance

• Regular performance reviews to ensure your growth is transparent and rewarded

• Financial support - consultations for private entrepreneurs from our dedicated finance team

Recruitment process:

Intro Call → Test Task → Technical Interview → Final Interview → Reference Check → Offer