Principal Backend Architect — Remote, Equity & Impact

Novakid School; United States; Remote; USD 190,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fully remote work (core hours GMT+3)

Unlimited holidays

Bonuses and stock options

Dynamic team that builds innovative ed

Remote-first culture

Job summary

Novakid School is hiring a Principal Backend Engineer to own backend architecture while remaining hands-on. You’ll split time between implementing reference components and crucial architectural decisions for a globally distributed online education platform.

The role emphasizes research-driven tradeoffs, modular backend evolution, and scalable live class infrastructure. We seek a veteran with 7+ years in Python backend engineering, strong FastAPI/SQLAlchemy/Celery experience, and deep AWS (and

Qualifications

• 7+ years of backend engineering, hands-on in Python.
• Production experience with FastAPI, SQLAlchemy, Celery, Postgres, Redis.
• Strong AWS architecture experience (EKS, Lambda, RDS, SQS/SNS/EventBridge).
• Experience designing high-load, latency-sensitive, geo-distributed systems.
• Pragmatic judgment on buy vs. build vs. assemble — documented decisions.

Responsibilities

• Define backend architecture standards and major technical decisions across teams.
• Guide the path from monolith toward modular, service-oriented backend.
• Design API conventions, EDA patterns, testing, observability, deployment.
• Architect cloud solutions across AWS and GCP, including multi-region designs.
• Address high-load, real-time infrastructure needs for live classes.
• Evaluate buy vs. build vs. assemble options and document recommendations.
• Implement production code for critical components and refactors.

Skills

Python

Backend architecture

FastAPI

SQLAlchemy

Celery

Postgres

Redis

AWS

GCP

Geo-distributed systems

Documentation of decisions

Tools

Kubernetes (EKS/GKE)

AWS services (SQS/SNS/EventBridge, Lambda, RDS)

Pub/Sub

OpenAI / Anthropic / Google AI integrations

Job description

Novakid School is hiring a Principal Backend Engineer to own backend architecture while remaining hands-on. You’ll split time between implementing reference components and crucial architectural decisions for a globally distributed online education platform.

The role emphasizes research-driven tradeoffs, modular backend evolution, and scalable live class infrastructure. We seek a veteran with 7+ years in Python backend engineering, strong FastAPI/SQLAlchemy/Celery experience, and deep AWS (and