Senior Backend Engineer for AI-Driven Platform

Playlist; United States; On-site; USD 151,000 - 202,000; Full time

Job summary

Playlist is seeking a senior backend engineer to build and operate the backend systems powering our platform. You will design services, model data, and push system capabilities, collaborating with product and design to ship features at scale.

Improve reliability and performance by embracing distributed architectures, automated testing, and observability. You’ll mentor teammates and leverage AI tooling to accelerate delivery and quality.

Qualifications

• 8+ years building backend systems for high-traffic apps.
• Strong distributed systems design and data modeling skills.
• OO languages: Java/Kotlin/C#, and SDLC/Agile background.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Product and Design to deliver features from ideation through deployment, iterating based on feedback and outcomes
• Design and ship backend services and APIs end-to-end, owning system design and architecture decisions across service boundaries, data ownership, consistency models, failure modes, and others
• Model and store data thoughtfully: schema design, indexing/partitioning, migrations, and performance tuning
• Promote engineering excellence by driving simplicity, strengthening operational health, and upholding quality through automated testing, code reviews, and monitoring/observability
• Mentor teammates and raise the bar for engineering rigor and clarity, including best practices for responsible AI usage

Skills

Backend systems

Distributed systems

Data modeling

Service-oriented architectures

Java/Kotlin/C#

CS fundamentals / SDLC

AI tooling judgment

Communication

Tools

PostgreSQL

MongoDB

DynamoDB

Redis

CI/CD

Observability tools

AI tooling (MCPs etc)

Job description

Playlist is seeking a senior backend engineer to build and operate the backend systems powering our platform. You will design services, model data, and push system capabilities, collaborating with product and design to ship features at scale.

Improve reliability and performance by embracing distributed architectures, automated testing, and observability. You’ll mentor teammates and leverage AI tooling to accelerate delivery and quality.