Senior Backend Software Engineer (Rust)

directus.com; United States; Remote; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote-friendly Europe-based

Job summary

directus.com is seeking a senior backend engineer to advance the core of a modular, self-hosted data platform used by developer teams in production. The role focuses on product engineering: delivering new features, refining the developer experience, and broadening platform capabilities with Rust.

You will collaborate with engineering and product partners to translate real user needs into production-ready features, maintainable architectures, and high-quality code in a remote-first environment.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of Rust production backend experience.
• Strong systems foundations across concurrency, memory and performance.
• Experience designing resilient, maintainable architectures.
• Ability to articulate trade-offs clearly.
• Experience in distributed, remote-first teams.
• Strong 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, 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.

Skills

Rust

Backend

Distributed systems

API design

English

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