Senior Backend Engineer – AI‑Driven Distributed Systems

Rapta, Inc; Portland (OR); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Competitive compensation

Professional development opportunities

Job summary

Rapta, Inc in Portland, Oregon is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to help build distributed, AI-powered systems and mentor mid-level and junior engineers. This full-time role is based in Portland with potential for remote work on a case-by-case basis.

The position emphasizes Linux backend development, microservices, Python, gRPC, Protocol Buffers, and scalable data pipelines, offering strong growth, equity, and competitive compensation.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience designing and building distributed backend systems on Linux.
• Expert-level Python programming and software architecture skills.
• Strong system design focusing on API contracts and fault tolerance.
• Experience with gRPC, Protocol Buffers, and contract-first development.
• Proficiency in Linux shell, logs, and observability.
• Excellent technical communication and documentation.

Responsibilities

• Architect and develop production-grade distributed microservices on Linux.
• Advance service mesh, API contracts, and inter-service communication.
• Build scalable data pipelines and high-throughput service infra.
• Design and evolve protobuf contracts and gRPC definitions.
• Mentor and provide technical guidance to junior engineers.

Skills

Python

Linux systems

System design

gRPC/Protobuf

CI/CD

Docker

Observability

Prompt engineering

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Protobuf

gRPC

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

Rapta, Inc in Portland, Oregon is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to help build distributed, AI-powered systems and mentor mid-level and junior engineers. This full-time role is based in Portland with potential for remote work on a case-by-case basis.

The position emphasizes Linux backend development, microservices, Python, gRPC, Protocol Buffers, and scalable data pipelines, offering strong growth, equity, and competitive compensation.