Founding Backend Engineer

Smartcoders Consulting; United States; Remote; USD 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A tech-driven company is seeking a Founding Backend Engineer to shape the architecture and build modern backend systems from scratch. The role is remote-friendly and focuses on high-impact engineering in a startup environment, requiring proficiency in AWS Serverless and backend development. Join us to make a tangible difference in how policies are understood across a wide audience.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Remote-friendly

Flexible hours

Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience in backend engineering in production environments.
• Comfortable using AWS Serverless stack and working in startup settings.
• Strong understanding of API design, performance, and security.

Responsibilities

• Own and build core backend services and APIs; implement secure, scalable endpoints.
• Model data systems using Postgres and DynamoDB.
• Optimize backend performance with best practices.

Skills

Backend engineering experience

Proficient with AWS Serverless

API-first mindset

Performance optimization

Security-conscious design

Adaptability in startup environments

Tools

AWS Lambda

Postgres

DynamoDB

Python

Job description

Overview

Job Title: Founding Backend Engineer
Location: Remote
Type: Full-time | Founding Team

Schedule:

• Evening Shift
• Regular Shift

Why Join Now?

This is a rare opportunity to:

• Join as a founding engineer and shape the architecture, product, and engineering culture from day one.
• Work on meaningful, high-impact problems that affect millions of people.
• Help build a modern backend from scratch with clarity, scale, and resilience in mind.
• Be part of a mission-driven team operating at the intersection of technology, finance, and public policy.

What You'll Do

As the Founding Backend Engineer, you will:

• Own and build core backend services and APIs design, implement, and maintain secure, scalable endpoints.
• Model data systems using Postgres and DynamoDB, choosing the right tools and schemas for the task.
• Build on AWS Serverless infrastructure (Lambda, API Gateway, S3, EventBridge, SQS/Kinesis).
• Optimize backend performance through query tuning, caching strategies, and efficient pagination.
• Ingest and normalize policy and financial data from external sources using both batch and streaming data pipelines.
• Integrate AI/ML services via AWS Bedrock (LLMs, embeddings, retrieval systems, guardrails).
• Implement observability best practices: structured logging, metrics, distributed tracing, alerting.
• Uphold security and compliance: authentication, authorization, IAM roles, secret management, input validation.
• Ensure code quality and deployment hygiene with testing, CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code (IaC), and zero-downtime deployments.
• Help define the overall architecture, with long-term scalability, maintainability, and performance in mind.

Who You Are

• Backend engineer with 4+ years of experience in production environments (or equivalent project depth).
• Proficient with AWS Serverless stack (Lambda, S3, API Gateway) and databases (Postgres, DynamoDB).
• API-first mindset: You care about clean contracts, versioning, idempotency, and developer experience.
• Obsessed with performance: You reduce latency, optimize SQL queries, and minimize cold starts.
• Security-conscious: You design systems with clear boundaries, minimal blast radius, and strong safeguards.
• Comfortable in startup environments you move fast, adapt quickly, and thrive in ambiguity.
• Mission-aligned: You believe technology can make policy more transparent and accessible.

Nice to Have

• Python scripting for data processing, ETL, or third-party API integrations.
• Experience working with LLMs or integrating with AWS Bedrock.
• Familiarity with financial APIs (like Setu, Perfios, or RBI datasets) or government open data platforms.
• Previous experience as a founding engineer or early-stage team member.

Tech Stack

• Backend: AWS Lambda, API Gateway, S3, EventBridge, SQS, Kinesis
• Data: Postgres, DynamoDB
• AI/ML: AWS Bedrock (LLMs, embeddings, retrieval)
• Language: Python (nice to have)

Compensation & Benefits

• Role: Founding Backend Engineer
• Compensation: Competitive salary
• Benefits: Remote-friendly, flexible hours
• Location: Remote-first (India preferred)
• Impact: Build something that helps millions understand the policies that shape their lives