Staff Backend Engineer

Talently; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Talently in Manhattan, NYC is seeking a Staff Backend Engineer to guide the architecture and evolution of our core platform and external APIs. This hands-on IC role offers broad ownership and direct access to engineering leadership. You’ll write production code, shape technical direction, and help engineers deliver.

The stack is open, with Ruby on Rails, Node.js, PostgreSQL, and AWS. You’ll operate in a hybrid model: in-office Monday–Thursday and remote Fridays, contributing to growth across new

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience or equivalent depth with demonstrated impact.
• Strong hands-on backend development and production coding experience.
• Experience leading substantial technical projects across multiple engineers or teams.
• Experience designing transactional systems, external APIs, or integration platforms.
• Strong relational data modeling and system design fundamentals.
• Understanding of concurrency, consistency, asynchronous workflows, and production failure handling.
• Track record of safely evolving existing production systems.
• Clear communication, strong product thinking, and collaborative approach.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture and technical direction for core backend systems and partner-facing APIs.
• Write production code and guide implementation across multiple backend engineers.
• Design data models and system boundaries that support complex business rules and new product categories.
• Build stable, versioned APIs and reusable integration patterns.
• Ensure transactional correctness through concurrency controls, safe retries, recovery, and reconciliation.
• Evolve existing production systems through incremental migrations, testing, monitoring, and safe rollouts.
• Partner with engineering leadership, Product, and business stakeholders on priorities and technical tradeoffs.
• Mentor engineers through design reviews, code reviews, and pairing.
• Own technical outcomes from initial design through launch and ongoing operation.

Skills

Backend development

System design

API design

Leadership experience

Concurrency and reliability

Communication

Mentoring

Tools

Ruby on Rails

Node.js

PostgreSQL

AWS

Job description

A growing consumer marketplace is hiring a Staff Backend Engineer to lead the architecture and evolution of its core platform and external APIs.

The company is expanding an established product into new categories, markets, and distribution channels. You’ll shape the technical foundation for that growth, make meaningful architectural decisions, and build systems that other engineers and partners depend on. This is a hands on individual contributor role with broad ownership and direct access to engineering leadership. You’ll write production code, guide technical direction, and help other engineers deliver.

Tech stack is open. We’re looking for strong backend engineers with solid fundamentals, sound technical judgment, and the ability to learn quickly. Our environment includes Ruby on Rails, Node.js, Postgres, and AWS, but experience with our specific stack is not required.

This is a full time position based in Manhattan, NYC. Monday through Thursday is in office work and Fridays are remote work.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture and technical direction for core backend systems and partner-facing APIs.
• Write production code and guide implementation across multiple backend engineers.
• Design data models and system boundaries that support complex business rules and new product categories.
• Build stable, versioned APIs and reusable integration patterns.
• Ensure transactional correctness through concurrency controls, safe retries, recovery, and reconciliation.
• Evolve existing production systems through incremental migrations, testing, monitoring, and safe rollouts.
• Partner with engineering leadership, Product, and business stakeholders on priorities and technical tradeoffs.
• Mentor engineers through design reviews, code reviews, and pairing.
• Own technical outcomes from initial design through launch and ongoing operation.

Must-Have Skills

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, or equivalent technical depth and demonstrated impact.
• Strong hands-on backend development skills and recent experience writing production code.
• Experience leading substantial technical projects across multiple engineers or teams.
• Experience designing transactional systems, external APIs, or integration platforms.
• Strong relational data modeling and system design fundamentals.
• An understanding of concurrency, consistency, asynchronous workflows, and production failure handling.
• A track record of safely evolving existing production systems.
• Clear communication, strong product thinking, and a curious, collaborative approach.

Nice to Have Skills

• Payments, orders, inventory, reservations, or marketplace systems.
• Partner integrations and public APIs.
• Establishing technical patterns adopted by other engineers or teams.