Senior Software Engineer (Backend)

bookofthemonth; New York (NY); On-site; USD 125,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Book of the Month is hiring a Senior Backend Software Engineer in New York to architect and implement backend services for web and mobile platforms. You will own end-to-end features, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and drive scalable, robust APIs and data models.

The role emphasizes clean design, reliable releases, and constant improvement of code quality, performance, and maintainability across services while mentoring other engineers to handle edge cases and optimize workflows.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of production experience building backend systems.
• Proficient in Node.js and TypeScript for API development and data integrity.
• Experience modeling data in relational databases (MySQL/PostgreSQL) and evolving schemas safely.
• Designing and versioning REST APIs with stable contracts and backward compatibility.
• Building and maintaining robust test suites to gate production releases.
• Experience optimizing queries and leveraging Redis, Kafka, and SQS for performance.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end feature and tool development used by hundreds of thousands of users.
• Collaborate with product, design, and stakeholders to deliver practical, timely solutions.
• Create detailed technical specifications for peer review and execution by teams.
• Review peers' work, mentor engineers, and promote scalable, well-patterned designs.
• Write and drive code implementations, ensuring high quality and reliable releases.
• Verify solutions through all development stages and monitor post-release success.

Skills

Node.js

TypeScript

MySQL

PostgreSQL

REST APIs

Testing suites

Redis

Kafka

SQS

Job description

The Engineering team at Book of the Month is responsible for developing and maintaining customer-facing features on our website and mobile applications as well as internal tools that support our fulfillment centers and other departments such as our Editorial, Customer Service, and Finance teams. We work closely with Product, Design, and our fellow engineers to drive projects from inception to launch, working on quick, iterative timelines to ensure quality while maximizing business impact.

We are looking for a Senior Backend Software Engineer to architect creative technical solutions to complex problems, ensure consistent delivery of roadmapped features, and seek constant improvement of our code’s efficacy, performance, and maintainability.

What you will do…

• Own the end-to-end creation of features and tools that reach hundreds of thousands of users.
• Collaborate closely with technical and non-technical stakeholders to find practical, cost-effective solutions that meet business needs in feasible timelines.
• Create detailed, comprehensive technical specifications outlining well thought-out solutions for review by peers & execution by orchestrated agentic workflows.
• Review technical specifications of other developers to ensure success of their projects along with your own, mentoring other engineers to architect for scalability, follow good design patterns, and uncover edge cases.
• Write code and direct code generation to implement approved solutions at high code-quality standards.
• Verify solutions at every step of the development process, considering both happy and unhappy paths, & monitoring success after release.

Minimum Qualifications: 6+ years in…

• Developing high-quality, production code using Node.js.
• Utilizing TypeScript to ensure integrity of API contracts, store clean data, and future-proof projects for low-lift expansion while avoiding regressions.
• Modeling data in relational databases such as MySQL or PostgreSQL and evolving schemas safely against live production data.
• Designing and versioning REST APIs with clear, reliable contracts and consistent backward compatibility.
• Building and maintaining test suites rigorous enough to be trusted as a quality gate for production release.
• Prioritizing efficiency by optimizing SQL, minimizing DB trips, managing in-memory load, and utilizing third-party services such as Redis, Kafka, and SQS.

About you…

• Solution-oriented: Enjoys tackling problems, breaking them down into pieces, and finding innovative ways to use ever-evolving technologies to solve them.
• Excited by ownership: Embraces the prospect of creating something from scratch, owning its development, and ensuring its quality to end users.
• Undeterred by ambiguity: Sees complex problems as opportunities for growth rather than obstacles, driving a solution forward no matter how complicated the path.
• Team player: Collaborates with others and picks up new skills to help out when needed, whether that be nailing down reproduction steps of a bug, creating a frontend component, or hunting down a gap in our data for analytics.

Salary Range: $125,000 - $180,000