Job Description
About the Role
We're seeking a smart, pragmatic full-stack engineer who builds systems that scale. You'll work across the stack, Python backends and Next.js frontends, architecting and shipping production services that handle real-world growth, including integrating AI/LLM capabilities into core product features. This isn't about memorizing frameworks. It's about understanding how to build software that works reliably at scale.
What We're Looking For
Core Backend Expertise
Python Web Frameworks
- 2+ years production experience building web applications with Django, FastAPI, Flask, or similar Python frameworks
- Deep understanding of ORM patterns, migrations, and query optimization
- Experience with REST or API frameworks in your ecosystem
- Knowledge of async and background task processing (Celery, RQ, or equivalent)
Scalable Architecture Principles
- Understanding of building applications for horizontal scalability
- Knowledge of stateless application design and why it matters
- Experience with external configuration management (environment variables, config services)
- Proper separation of build, release, and run stages
- Understanding of backing services as attached resources (databases, queues, caches)
- Experience with process management and concurrency patterns
- Port binding and service independence concepts
- Disposability, fast startup and graceful shutdown
- Dev/prod parity mindset
- Treating logs as event streams
- Running admin tasks as one-off processes
Database & Data Layer
- Strong PostgreSQL experience
- Ability to design normalized schemas and know when to denormalize
- Understanding of indexing strategies and query performance
- Experience with database migrations at scale
- Knowledge of connection pooling and database scalability patterns
API Design
- RESTful API design principles and best practices
- Proper HTTP method usage and status codes
- API versioning strategies
- Rate limiting and pagination patterns
- Authentication/authorization (JWT, OAuth2, token management)
AI & LLM Integration
- Experience integrating LLM APIs into production applications (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, or similar)
- Understanding of prompt engineering principles and structured output handling
- Familiarity with common AI integration patterns: tool/function calling, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), streaming responses
- Awareness of cost management, token budgeting, and latency optimization for AI-powered features
- Ability to build reliable systems around non-deterministic AI outputs (retries, fallbacks, validation)
Frontend Capabilities
Next.js & React
- Practical experience building user interfaces with Next.js or React
- Understanding of component architecture and state management
- Ability to integrate frontend applications with backend APIs
- Comfortable owning frontend features, not just fixing bugs
You'll split time between backend and frontend depending on project needs.
Security Fundamentals
Must demonstrate security-first thinking:
- Protection against common vulnerabilities (SQL injection, XSS, CSRF, etc.)
- OWASP awareness and secure coding practices
- Understanding of authentication vs. authorization
- Secure credential and secrets management
- Input validation and sanitization mindsets
- Security as design consideration, not afterthought
Version Control
Git Proficiency
- Strong Git workflow understanding (branching, merging, rebasing)
- Experience with pull requests and code review processes
- Ability to write clear, meaningful commit messages
- Understanding of Git best practices for team collaboration
- Familiarity with resolving merge conflicts
Engineering Mindset & Problem-Solving
We care deeply about how you think, not just what you know:
- Problem Decomposition: Break complex challenges into manageable pieces
- Trade-off Evaluation: Understand there's no perfect solution, only optimal trade-offs
- Scalability Thinking: Consider future growth from day one
- Pragmatic Decisions: Choose proven solutions over clever hacks
- Continuous Learning: Adapt quickly to new challenges and technologies
- First Principles: Question assumptions and think from fundamentals
Culture & Work Ethic
What Matters to Us
Attitude & Ownership
- Take pride in your work and the problems you solve
- Strong work ethic and commitment to delivering quality
- Proactive communication about challenges and blockers
- Team-first mentality while being independently productive
Cultural Alignment
- Ship working software, iterate based on reality
- Focus on impact and user value, not just code elegance
- Learn from failures, improve continuously
- Help teammates grow while growing yourself
Work Commitment
Full-time, Exclusive Engagement
- This is a full-time position requiring 100% commitment
- No concurrent employment, freelancing, or side contracts permitted
- We invest heavily in our team and expect reciprocal dedication
- Flexible within core hours, but fully engaged during working time
We're building something significant that requires your full attention and energy.
What You'll Do
- Design and build scalable Python backend services
- Build and maintain Next.js frontend features
- Integrate AI/LLM capabilities into production features
- Architect APIs that support current needs and future growth
- Optimize database schemas and queries for performance
- Implement security best practices across the application stack
- Write clean, maintainable, well-tested code
- Participate in code reviews and architectural discussions
- Deploy and monitor production systems
- Debug and resolve production issues efficiently
- Collaborate with team on technical decisions
Ideal Candidate Profile
You're someone who:
- Thinks before coding, considers scalability and security from the start
- Asks why, questions requirements to understand the real problem
- Owns outcomes, takes responsibility from concept to production
- Communicates clearly, explains technical decisions and trade-offs
- Works smart and hard, balances velocity with quality
- Grows continuously, seeks feedback and improves daily
- Solves problems, not just implements features
Nice to Have
- Experience with Docker and containerization
- Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, or Azure)
- CI/CD pipeline setup and maintenance
- Message queue experience (RabbitMQ, Redis, Kafka)
- Caching strategies (Redis, Memcached)
- Monitoring and observability tools (Sentry, DataDog, etc.)
- Load balancing and reverse proxy configuration
- Experience with microservices architecture
- Voice AI or real-time audio/video pipeline experience (LiveKit, WebRTC)
- Agent architecture patterns (tool use, multi-agent orchestration)
