Senior Backend Software Engineer

RealWork Labs, Inc.; Austin (TX); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Health, Dental, Vision

Hybrid/Remote flexibility

Flexible PTO

401(k)

Job summary

RealWork Labs, Inc. in Austin, TX is seeking a Senior Backend Software Engineer to own backend design, API development, and data modeling for a fast-moving platform. You’ll maintain a Fastify + MongoDB stack, work with ORMs, and drive full SDLC ownership on per-project basis.

You’ll engage with stakeholders to refine scope, apply SOLID/DRY principles, and contribute to AI-assisted, scalable product development with a focus on B2B solutions. Hybrid/remote flexibility offered.

Qualifications

• Ability to convert behavioral and UX specifications into a set of technical requirements and scopes then lead a development team to execute those scopes

Responsibilities

• Define and refine product requirements given input from a cross-functional set of stakeholders
• Convert specifications into technical requirements and scopes then lead a development team to execute
• Demonstrable experience data modeling, optimizing queries and db indexes, and building REST/RPC APIs is required
• Professional experience building products with TypeScript, NodeJS and MongoDB is required
• Experience in CI/CD with Terraform is preferred

Skills

TypeScript

NodeJS

MongoDB

REST APIs

Data modeling

SOLID principles

Refactoring strategies

Async vs Sync concepts

AWS

CI/CD

React

Startup experience

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Tools

Terraform

React

Job description

We’re RealWork , a team of builders and problem-solvers based in Austin, Texas. Our mission is to help home service professionals earn the trust they deserve online.

RealWork is the marketing engine behind thousands of contractors nationwide. We transform their best jobs into SEO-optimized stories, photos, and reviews that drive growth. Through integrations with leading field service platforms, we automate meaningful customer engagement after each job and use job content to help contractor’s online presence better reflect the quality of their work in the field.

RealWork is based 100% in the US and headquartered in Austin, TX.

The Role:

We're looking for a Senior Backend Software Engineer to join our small but growing engineering team. A great candidate will be able to demonstrate competency in Backend development, and will be at ease maintaining a Fastify + Mongo backend, working with ORMs and designing REST/RPC APIs. You’re a communicator who works with stakeholders to refine scope ruthlessly and works with other engineers to maintain a high accountability and quality bar. This role presents an opportunity to be hands‑on with cutting‑edge technologies while owning the full SDLC on a per‑project basis in a fast moving and growing platform. The ideal candidate will have a high level of expertise in product development, data engineering, and systems architecture, with a particular focus on B2B solutions.

The Role of AI:

The elephant in the room. Every team is adopting AI and the conversation is inevitable. Here’s what to expect at RealWork. We view your human ability to solve problems, understand the technical ecosystem, take the lead, make cost/benefit tradeoffs and communicate with other humans as the real value markers of top-talent engineers - this was true before AI was a household term. The agent is good at researching, advising and typing. With that in mind we’ve developed a high-throughput, AI assisted, docs-as-code engineering framework we’ll train you in which means you’ll be delivering best‑in‑class, well tested, well documented features on a blazing fast cadence. Our Human-in-the-lead approach means you focus your time and energy on creative problem solving and the agent does the tedious work of maintaining thousands of lines of docs, code and tests.

The Product:

Our platform helps home service businesses attract new customers by showcasing their work in the field through websites and website widgets. Our product is primarily a TypeScript + MERN‑stack backend with React frontends. We put an emphasis on keeping the codebase evergreen and focused on best practices while balancing stability and ease of use for the development team.

The Interview Process:

Tired of the 10-round interview gauntlet? So are we. We have a simple, straightforward interview process that takes less than 4 hours of your time - total. Sick of Take-Home Assessments and Algorithm Exercises before you ever get the chance to talk with someone? Us too. Let's get to the point, and see what we can build together.

Responsibilities & Requirements

• Demonstrated ability to help define and refine product requirements given input from a cross-functional set of stakeholders
• Ability to convert behavioral and UX specifications into a set of technical requirements and scopes then lead a development team to execute those scopes
• Conversational fluency in AWS and cloud computing concepts is required
• Strong coding experience required
• You can teach SOLID and DRY principles - you also know when to break them
• You have a library of goto refactoring strategies (a la Martin Fowler’s Refactoring)
• You can explain the pros/cons of synchronous and asynchronous systems
• Demonstrable experience data modeling, optimizing queries and db indexes, and building REST/RPC APIs is required
• Professional experience building products with TypeScript, NodeJS and MongoDB is required
• Experience in CI/CD with Terraform is preferred
• Frontend experience with React/Preact is preferred.
• Previous experience building products in a startup environment is preferred
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science preferred

Why Join RealWork?

• Startup environment within a stable, industry-leading company
• Competitive salary, bonus structure & equity
• Excellent Health, Dental, Vision and Parental Benefits
• Regular team outings & events
• Hybrid / Remote Flexibility
• Flexible PTO and Work Hours
• 401(k)

RealWork is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We’re committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. We do not discriminate against qualified employees or applicants because of race, color, religion, gender identity, sex, sexual preference, sexual identity, pregnancy, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, marital status, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, military status, or any other characteristic protected by local, state, and federal law or ordinance.