Senior / Staff Product Engineer, Backend & Data $150,000 - $220,000

Fuel Talent LLC; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Job summary

Fuel Talent LLC is seeking a Senior/Staff Backend Product Engineer for a fully remote role in the U.S. You will design and build scalable backend systems using Python and develop APIs powering customer-facing products.

The role emphasizes strong SQL skills, data modeling, and collaboration with product teams to solve real-world operational challenges. The position offers significant ownership in architecture and technical direction, with equity in a well-funded seed-stage startup.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering experience.
• Strong experience building production backend applications in Python.
• Deep expertise in SQL, relational database design, and performance optimization.

Responsibilities

• Design and build scalable backend systems using Python.
• Develop APIs and services that power customer-facing products.
• Design and optimize relational databases, data models, and SQL queries.
• Collaborate on architecture, system design, and engineering best practices.

Skills

Python

APIs

SQL

System design

Startup environment

Communication

Tools

PostgreSQL

FastAPI

SQLAlchemy

GCP

GitHub Actions

Job description

## Senior / Staff Backend Product Engineer (Remote)**Location:** Remote (U.S. preferred) **Type:** Full-time **Compensation:** $150,000-$220,000 base + equityWe're partnering with a well-funded, seed-stage startup that's building an AI-powered platform transforming how enterprise customers manage complex operational data and workflows. As an early engineering hire, you'll have significant influence over the product, architecture, and technical direction while working directly with experienced founders and engineering leadership.### What You'll Do* Design and build scalable backend systems using Python* Develop APIs and services that power customer-facing products* Design and optimize relational databases, data models, and SQL queries* Collaborate on architecture, system design, and engineering best practices* Partner closely with product and customers to solve real-world operational challenges* Contribute across the stack as needed while remaining primarily backend-focused### Tech Stack* Python* FastAPI* PostgreSQL* SQLAlchemy* React + TypeScript* Google Cloud Platform* GitHub Actions / CI/CD### What We're Looking For* 5+ years of software engineering experience* Strong experience building production backend applications in Python* Deep expertise in SQL, relational database design, and performance optimization* Experience designing APIs and scalable distributed systems* Strong system design and architecture skills* Comfortable in a fast-paced startup environment with high ownership* Excellent communication and collaboration skills### Nice to Have* FastAPI, PostgreSQL, SQLAlchemy, or Alembic* GCP experience* React or full-stack experience* B2B SaaS or data platform experience* Experience at an early-stage startup### Why You'll Love This Opportunity* Early employee with meaningful equity* High-impact role with direct access to founders* Opportunity to shape engineering culture and technical direction* Small, collaborative team where your ideas have immediate impact* Solve complex technical challenges with real customer impactIf you're excited about building scalable products from the ground up and want to help shape an ambitious startup during its early growth, we'd love to connect.