Senior Backend Software Engineer (Rust)

directus.com; United States; Remote; USD 104,000 - 173,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fully remote (Europe)

Equity participation

Competitive compensation

Job summary

Directus is seeking a senior backend engineer to advance the core of a modular, self-hosted data platform used by developer teams in production. You will write in Rust, deliver features, and improve the developer experience in a remote-first setting.

You’ll collaborate with product and engineering partners to translate real user needs into production-ready designs, architectures, and robust APIs while maintaining speed and reliability across distributed systems.

Qualifications

• Substantial backend engineering experience with production work in Rust (3+ years).
• Strong foundations in concurrency, memory and performance trade-offs, distributed systems concepts, and API design.
• Proven track record designing evolvable, resilient architectures.
• Excellent written and verbal English communication.

Responsibilities

• Design and deliver product features and platform capabilities in Rust that lift the developer experience.
• Convert product needs into clear technical plans, shaping requirements, UX and API contracts, and iterating with product managers and designers.
• Construct maintainable service and domain architecture with strong test coverage and thoughtful abstractions.
• Take ownership end-to-end: design docs, implementation, reviews, testing, rollout, and iteration based on feedback.
• Operate within a remote-first team with clear written communication and asynchronous collaboration.
• Lift engineering standards through code quality and documentation.

Skills

Rust

Backend engineering

Distributed systems

API design

English communication

Job description

Role overview

A senior backend engineer is needed to advance the core of a modular, self-hosted data platform widely used by developer teams in production. The role centers on product engineering: delivering new features, refining the developer experience, and broadening platform capabilities without sacrificing speed, correctness, or maintainability. You will work closely with engineering and product partners to convert real user needs into pragmatic, production-ready features written in Rust.

Responsibilities

• Design and deliver product features and platform capabilities in Rust that lift the developer experience
• Convert product needs into clear technical plans, shaping requirements, UX and API contracts, and iterating with product managers, front-end engineers, and designers
• Construct maintainable service and domain architecture with clean boundaries, strong test coverage, and considered abstractions
• Take ownership end-to-end: design documents, implementation, peer reviews, testing, rollout, and post-release iteration informed by user feedback
• Operate within a remote-first team that favors clear written communication and asynchronous collaboration
• Lift engineering standards through code quality, documentation, and pragmatic technical judgment

Requirements

• Substantial backend engineering experience plus meaningful production work in Rust, typically three or more years
• Solid systems engineering foundations across concurrency, memory and performance trade-offs, distributed systems concepts, and API design
• A track record of designing and evolving architectures that remain resilient and maintainable over time
• Ability to articulate trade-offs clearly and propose pragmatic solutions
• Background working in distributed, remote-first teams, or a strong preference for that style of collaboration
• Strong written and verbal communication in English

Nice to have

• Hands-on experience with data-intensive systems such as databases, streaming pipelines, search, caching layers, or storage engines
• Familiarity with APIs and developer platforms, whether public-facing or internal tooling
• Comfort with performance profiling and optimization in Rust
• Exposure to turning ambiguous product needs into shippable platform features

Benefits and work setup

• Fully remote position based in Europe, with flexible working hours
• Small team with high ownership and room to shape architecture and direction
• Competitive compensation with equity participation
• Work on a developer-focused platform that runs in production for many teams, both self-hosted and cloud-hosted