Senior Backend Engineer

Boam AI; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,500,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Job summary

Boam AI is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to own core parts of our Scala + Python data and agent infrastructure, designing, building, and scaling systems that handle real-time signals at enterprise scale. You’ll work with a small, senior team, shipping with minimal safety nets and driving critical data pipelines and APIs across the stack.

Join a fast-moving, high-autonomy environment where AI-powered workflows are embedded in the product, and impact is measured by real customer outcomes and

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience building and operating production backend systems.
• Strong experience with Scala, Python or functional/JVM languages.
• Comfortable with distributed systems and high-volume data pipelines.
• Enjoy greenfield design from first principles to deployment and monitoring.

Responsibilities

• Design and build resilient backend services and APIs.
• Own data pipelines from ingestion to delivery.
• Prepare systems for 100x data growth.
• Improve performance, scalability, and observability.
• Productize AI-powered agents with data infrastructure.
• Mentor teammates and raise engineering bar.

Skills

Backend engineering

Scala & Python

Distributed systems

Data pipelines

5+ years exp

Job description

Ship & run backend systems that turn messy signals into truth

Boam AI builds managed data solutions that transform messy, unstructured signals from public, private, and proprietary sources into structured, reliable, and always up-to-date intelligence on millions of SMBs and enterprises worldwide. These agentic systems power CRMs, data warehouses, AI products, and mission-critical decisions across the enterprise.

As a Senior Backend Engineer, you will own core parts of our Scala + Python data and agent infrastructure. You will design, build, and scale existing and greenfield systems that keep our data fresh, our APIs fast, and our customers’ workflows moving. This is a role for someone who wants real ownership over hard technical problems, with minimal safety nets and a small, senior team.

What You’ll Do

• Design and build resilient backend services and APIs

• Own critical data pipelines from ingestion to enrichment to delivery

• Prepare our systems for 100x data growth over the next three years

• Build reliability and test coverage into the code itself – no separate QA layer

• Improve performance, scalability, and observability across our stack

• Work closely with data/ML to productize AI-powered agents end to end

• Raise the engineering bar through design reviews, pairing, and mentorship

• Optimize for real impact, customer outcomes, and fast iteration over theoretical perfection

• Use next-gen AI tools to improve code quality and velocity

You May Be a Fit If...

• 5+ years building and operating production backend systems

• Strong experience with Scala, Python or functional / JVM languages

• Comfortable with distributed systems, data modeling, and high-volume pipelines

• Enjoy greenfield work: from first principles design to deploy and monitoring

• Thrive without heavy process, QA buffers, or endless safeguards

• Bias to ship, measure, and refine rather than over-architect

• Motivated by solving real user problems, not just abstract puzzles

• Excited to work where AI/ML is deeply embedded in the product, not bolted on

Why Boam AI

• Join a no-politics, high-trust, low-ego, and high-talent team

• Own mission-critical systems used by top-tier enterprise customers

• Work directly with founders & Head of Engineering on problems that matter

• High autonomy, real impact, and clear ownership from day one

• Operate at the intersection of AI, data infrastructure, and enterprise workflows

• Top-tier compensation with meaningful equity upside

• Help build the platform, patterns, and engineering culture you can be proud of

Our Hiring Process

Our process is fast, structured, and transparent — built to respect your time and surface real mutual fit

1. Intro Call

A short conversation to learn more about you, share context on Boam AI and the role, and answer initial questions

2. Deep Dive

Walk us through past engineering work and how you think about complex, ambiguous backend problems

3. Work Sample

Solve a real Boam-style technical challenge that shows your coding style, system thinking, and execution muscle

4. Founder Conversation

Candid discussion with our founder on ambition, values, ownership, and how you’d grow with us as we scale the platform