Principal Backend Software Engineer (TypeScript, Node.js, Distributed Systems)

Modus Create; United States; Remote; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Modus Create is seeking a Principal Backend Software Engineer to accelerate a leading SaaS platform in sports tech. You’ll build high-volume backend services, including video delivery, e-commerce, and team management, using TypeScript and Node.js in a fully remote team.

You’ll own feature execution, design scalable systems, and collaborate with product, design, and other engineering teams, with strong autonomy and a product-minded approach.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of production software engineering experience.
• 4+ years building backend microservices and REST APIs with TypeScript and Node.js.
• Designing distributed, idempotent, event-driven systems.
• Hands-on Express.js experience and separating routing from core logic.
• Experience using Claude Code or similar AI-assisted tools.
• Independently exploring unfamiliar codebases and dependencies.
• Strong product thinking: value, trade-offs, pragmatic tech choices.
• APIs for web and mobile consumption; backend design expertise.
• Knowledge of AWS, Terraform and modern DevOps practices.
• React familiarity for frontend integration when needed.

Responsibilities

• Own feature execution from design through production delivery.
• Navigate and understand unfamiliar codebases with minimal oversight.
• Collaborate with backend, frontend, mobile, and platform teams.
• Contribute to architecture decisions and system resiliency.
• Leverage AI-assisted tools to accelerate development and testing.

Skills

TypeScript

Node.js

Distributed systems

API design

Express.js

Claude Code

Product thinking

React

Tools

AWS

Terraform

React

Job description

Principal Backend Software Engineer (TypeScript, Node.js, Distributed Systems)

About Us

Founded in 2011, Modus is a global, fully remote team of world-class technologists who thrive in a collaborative, innovative environment. We’re a digital product engineering partner for forward-thinking businesses. Our global teams work side-by-side with clients to design, build, and scale custom solutions that achieve real results and lasting change, partnering with industry leaders including AWS, GitHub, and Atlassian.

We were fully remote before it was cool! Recognized as one of the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies for nine years and a top remote work company by FlexJobs, we have helped some of the world’s largest brands deliver powerful digital experiences.

As an award-winning Atlassian partner with a world-class team, we help organizations innovate and solve complex challenges for Fortune 500 companies and beyond, we want to hear from you.

Opportunity!

We are looking for a Principal Backend Software Engineer to help accelerate the engineering roadmap of a leading SaaS platform in the sports technology and youth sports management space.

You’ll work on modern backend services supporting high-volume product experiences across areas such as video and content delivery, e-commerce, monetization, scheduling, and team management. Following a significant platform modernization, the team is continuing to evolve its architecture and expand critical product capabilities.

This is a highly hands-on role for an engineer who thrives in ambiguous environments, combines strong systems architecture with a product mindset , and can operate with a high degree of autonomy. You’ll take ownership of feature execution, independently navigate unfamiliar codebases, and use modern agentic coding tools such as Claude Code to accelerate development, testing, and technical discovery.

Requirements:

• 8+ years of production software engineering experience building and operating complex software systems.
• 4+ years of hands-on experience building backend microservices and REST APIs with TypeScript and Node.js.
• Strong experience designing distributed, idempotent, and event-driven systems and resilient asynchronous workflows.
• Hands-on experience with Express.js , with the ability to separate routing and framework concerns from core domain and business logic.
• Strong understanding of backend architecture, API design, reliability, transaction consistency, and asynchronous processing.
• Demonstrated experience using Claude Code or comparable AI-assisted/agentic development tools as part of day-to-day software engineering.
• Ability to independently explore unfamiliar codebases, identify dependencies, understand complex business logic, and move solutions forward with minimal oversight.
• Strong product thinking , including the ability to ask clarifying questions, understand user and business value, evaluate trade-offs, and recommend pragmatic technical solutions.
• Experience designing stable, contract-driven APIs consumed by web and/or native mobile applications.
• Working familiarity with AWS, Terraform, Infrastructure as Code, and modern DevOps practices.
• Working knowledge of React and the ability to contribute to frontend integration when feature delivery requires cross-stack changes.
• Strong communication skills and experience working effectively within distributed engineering teams.
• Ability to maintain substantial working-hour overlap with Pacific Time (PT).

Bonus points:

• Experience designing backend services consumed by native iOS/Swift and Android/Kotlin applications.
• Experience with high-volume media processing, content delivery, e-commerce, payments, or monetization systems.
• Experience modernizing or decomposing legacy monolithic applications into modern service-based architectures.
• Deep experience with message-driven architectures, queues, event processing, and distributed transaction patterns.
• Experience reviewing production telemetry and diagnosing performance or reliability issues in high-throughput systems.
• Experience using AI-assisted development beyond code generation, including codebase exploration, refactoring, test generation, debugging, and technical discovery.
• Experience working on high-scale SaaS or consumer-facing platforms.

You’ll Love:

• Taking ownership of complex backend features from technical exploration through production delivery.
• Building clean, maintainable TypeScript and Node.js services.
• Solving challenging problems involving distributed systems, asynchronous processing, idempotency, and high-volume workloads.
• Working with significant autonomy and independently navigating unfamiliar systems and codebases.
• Using Claude Code and agentic engineering workflows to improve development velocity and software quality.
• Working closely with product and engineering leaders to turn ambiguous requirements into pragmatic technical solutions.
• Collaborating across backend, frontend, mobile, and platform engineering teams.
• Building technology that supports digital experiences used by millions of athletes, coaches, and families.

By joining our team, you’ll be part of a winning squad that plays to each other’s strengths and celebrates every success together.