Senior/Staff Backend Engineer
Salary not provided
Senior/Staff Backend Developer
Role Overview
We’re seeking a senior/staff-level backend developer to join our team. Already at 10k+ users, we are scaling quickly, and looking for a strong engineer to support this growth. This role is split across architectural design and individual contributions, working on challenges including cross-device data synchronization, large-scale data processing, cross-platform deployments, real-time multimedia processing, fault monitoring and reduction, and client-server-third party system design.
You’ll have designed complex systems in the past and have a strong sense of ownership. You can develop proofs of concepts quickly and avoid overengineering. Autonomy, leadership, strong communication, and positive energy will be critical in helping us achieve the robustness and user experience required to become the world’s go-to language learning platform.
Key Responsibilities
- Act as a senior/staff engineer in a team of ~4 backend engineers, collaborating with the broader engineering team
- Develop client- and server-side (Google Cloud) backends for new features, primarily in Kotlin or TypeScript
- Design feature and system architectures to meet robustness and scalability requirements
- Integrate with third-party systems, such as LLMs or payment providers
- Mentor backend team members
- Develop proofs of concept and implement features end-to-end
- Proactively suggest and implement system and team improvements
Required Skills
- Proficiency in English and strong communication skills with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Role-model individual contributor able to develop end-to-end features quickly
- Strong experience and theoretical understanding of scalable system designs and data structures
- Experience implementing cloud-based services
- Ability to work independently, prioritize tasks, and switch contexts quickly if needed
- Positive, solution-oriented attitude
- Ability to work in a diverse, fully remote team, generally with 4+ working hours overlap with JST (Japan Standard Time)
Nice to Have
- Learned at least one non-native spoken language to a high level and/or experience in CJK languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
- Experience with Google Cloud Platform, Docker, and/or Firebase
- Experience with Kotlin and/or TypeScript
- Experience in mobile development (e.g. iOS or Android native development and/or Kotlin multiplatform)
- Experience working with versioned release processes and/or multi-repo dependency coordination
- Experience interacting directly with user communities
Why Join Us
- Rapidly growing startup: Revenue increased 10x over the past year with plans to repeat that growth
- Direct impact: Opportunity to make a meaningful, lasting impact on the company and global language learning landscape
- High-trust, innovative community: Encouraging risk-taking, experimentation, and creativity
- Diverse, ambitious team: Work with executors and creatives from a wide range of backgrounds
Perks & Work Culture
- Remote Work: Work from anywhere
- Flexible Time Off: 36 flexible vacation/sick days per year
- Flexible Working Hours: No fixed hours; results matter more than the time clock. Expectation of a minimum 40-hour workweek with 4+ hours overlap with JST for essential meetings and collaboration