Senior Backend Engineer – Remote/Flexible Hours, Training

First Circle; United States; Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Macbooks

Private health insurance

Training budgets

Travel to South East Asia

Job summary

First Circle, an SME-focused NeoBank expanding across APAC, seeks senior backend engineers. Build scalable backend services, design APIs, and drive production reliability in a fast-paced fintech environment. The role supports remote work with optional Belgrade office access and travel to SE Asia.

We value 5+ years in Kotlin/Java/Ruby, strong data modeling, and a curiosity for AI. Expect collaboration across product, design, and business to deliver impactful financial products in regulated

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience building and operating production backend systems in Kotlin, Java, or Ruby.
• Strong foundations in API design, relational databases, and data modeling.
• Experience in a startup fintech, payroll, payments, or banking is a strong plus (especially in regulated environments).
• Hands-on experience running services in production: debugging, incidents, resilience.
• Comfortable in a fast-moving environment where priorities evolve.
• Curiosity about AI and practical use of AI tools or LLM-powered features.

Responsibilities

• Build and evolve backend services and APIs that are fast, reliable, and easy to change.
• Take features from idea to production: shape with product/design, ship, measure, and improve.
• Help make architectural decisions and write clear technical proposals.
• Keep services running smoothly with monitoring, quick response, and user support.
• Review code and help engineers grow.
• Collaborate across product, design, and business to turn needs into technical solutions.
• No fixed budget; offers based on experience and market rate.
• Flexible hours and location; role can be worked remotely with option to use offices.
• Macbooks, private health insurance, training budgets and more.
• Opportunity to travel to South East Asia.

Skills

Backend systems

Kotlin/Java/Ruby

API design

Data modeling

Production debugging

AI curiosity

Job description

First Circle, an SME-focused NeoBank expanding across APAC, seeks senior backend engineers. Build scalable backend services, design APIs, and drive production reliability in a fast-paced fintech environment. The role supports remote work with optional Belgrade office access and travel to SE Asia.

We value 5+ years in Kotlin/Java/Ruby, strong data modeling, and a curiosity for AI. Expect collaboration across product, design, and business to deliver impactful financial products in regulated