Staff Backend Engineer New York, New York, United States

Tbwa Chiat/Day Inc; New York (NY); Remote; USD 176,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

An innovative firm is seeking a Staff Backend Engineer to join their Recipe Management System team. In this pivotal role, you'll design and maintain scalable backend services using Kotlin and Java, working closely with talented engineers and product managers. Your expertise will empower chefs by optimizing workflows and enhancing system performance. This position offers a unique opportunity to contribute to a mission-driven company dedicated to culinary excellence and innovation. Join a team that values growth, collaboration, and the transformative power of food, while enjoying competitive compensation and generous perks.

Benefits

Stock Options Plan

5-year Sabbatical

Paid Family Leave

Compassionate Leave

CookUnity Credits

Wellness Perks

Qualifications

• 6+ years of backend development experience with Kotlin and/or Java.
• Strong understanding of microservices architectures and distributed systems.

Responsibilities

• Design and maintain backend services for the Recipe Management System.
• Collaborate with teams to build seamless user experiences.

Skills

Kotlin

Java

Microservices Architecture

Problem-Solving

RESTful API Design

SQL Databases

Cloud Services (AWS, GCP, Azure)

Tools

Micronaut

Spring Boot

Temporal

PostgreSQL

MySQL

Docker

Kubernetes

Terraform

Job description

Food has lost its soul to modern convenience. And with it, has lost the power to nourish, inspire, and connect us. So in 2018, CookUnity was founded as the first-of-its-kind platform that connects the world with the source of truly great food: chefs. Today, CookUnity delivers 35 million meals a year from the industry’s best chefs to homes all over the country. Fresh. Ready-to-eat. And crafted with the passion that nourishes body and soul.

Unwilling to stop there, CookUnity is expanding beyond delivery to become an ever-innovating marketplace focused on our singular mission: empower Chefs to nourish the world.

If that mission has you hungry in more ways than one, you’ve found the right job posting.

About The Team:

The Recipe Management System (RMS) Team is at the heart of CookUnity’s culinary innovation. Our team builds and maintains the systems that chefs rely on to create, manage, and scale their recipes seamlessly. RMS is a core part of CookUnity’s ChefOS Zone, supporting the entire meal lifecycle—from ideation to production—ensuring accuracy in ingredient sourcing, nutritional data, and compliance with dietary preferences.

We work closely with chefs, supply chain teams, and operations to integrate RMS with inventory management, order processing, and fulfillment. Our mission is to empower chefs with intuitive tools while ensuring efficiency and reliability in meal production at scale.

The Role:

We are looking for a Staff Backend Engineer to join our Recipe Management System (RMS) team. In this role, you will design, build, and maintain highly scalable backend services that power CookUnity’s core recipe management functionalities. You will work alongside other talented engineers, product managers, and designers to develop robust and efficient backend systems using Kotlin and Java, leveraging frameworks like Micronaut or Spring Boot and integrating Temporal for workflow automation.

This is an individual contributor (IC) role with a strong focus on backend architecture, performance, and scalability. If you enjoy solving complex problems, optimizing workflows, and working on mission-critical systems, this role is for you!

Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, and maintain backend services for the Recipe Management System using Kotlin and Java.
• Architect scalable, resilient, and maintainable microservices using Micronaut or Spring Boot.
• Implement workflow automation and orchestration using Temporal.
• Optimize database interactions and performance (PostgreSQL, MySQL).
• Collaborate with frontend engineers, product managers, and designers to build seamless user experiences.
• Ensure system reliability and uptime by implementing best practices in observability, logging, and monitoring.
• Perform code reviews, contribute to best practices, and mentor junior engineers.
• Work closely with DevOps to optimize CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure deployment.
• Stay up-to-date with emerging technologies and drive innovation within the team.
• 6+ years of backend development experience with Kotlin and/or Java.
• Experience working with Micronaut or Spring Boot frameworks.
• Strong understanding of microservices architectures and distributed systems.
• Proficiency in SQL databases like PostgreSQL or MySQL.
• Experience building high-performance, scalable backend systems.
• Strong problem-solving skills and a passion for clean, maintainable code.
• Solid understanding of RESTful API design and best practices.
• Familiarity with cloud services (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
• Strong communication skills and ability to work in a fast-paced environment.

Preferred Requirements:

• Experience with message queues (Kafka, RabbitMQ, etc.).
• Exposure to GraphQL and event-driven architectures.
• Experience in DevOps practices, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and infrastructure as code (Terraform).
• Background in food tech, e-commerce, or marketplace platforms.

We grow, you grow: Stock Options Plan granted on Day 1.

️ 5- year Sabbatical: After 5 years with CookUnity, you get a 4-week paid sabbatical.

Paid family leave.

Compassionate Leave: 3-5 days each time the need arises.

A generous amount of CookUnity credits to enjoy our amazing meals, added to your account, monthly.

️ Wellness perks: access to a nutritional coach and fitness subsidies to build a healthy lifestyle.

Awesome opportunity to join a company that is looking to change how we eat and how chefs work!

Compensation

All final pay rates will be determined by candidates experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities of the applicant, internal equity, and alignment with market data.

Pay Range for this position: $176,000 - $190,000 USD.

If you’re interested in this role, please submit your application and if we think you might be a fit, we'll get in touch with you. Thank you for your time!

CookUnity is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are dedicated to creating a community of inclusion and an environment free from discrimination or harassment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, citizenship status, protected veteran status, genetic information, or physical or mental disability.