Job description
Senior Backend Engineer (Python / Go)
Overview
We are seeking a skilled and passionate Senior Backend Engineer to join our team, focusing on the design, development, and maintenance of high-performance, scalable microservices. The ideal candidate will have strong expertise in Go (Golang), and a deep understanding of distributed systems architecture.
Essential Qualifications
Technical Skills
Skill CategoryRequirementProficiency LevelProgramming LanguagesPython (Deep expertise with frameworks like FastAPI, Flask, or Django)AdvancedProgramming LanguagesGo (Golang) (Experience building robust, high-concurrency microservices)ExpertMicroservices / ArchitectureDesigning, developing, and deploying RESTful APIsExpertSecurityKeycloak, API authentication, JWTAdvancedDatabasesRealtime analytics (Clickhouse)AdvancedDatabasesRelational databases (MySQL) including complex query optimizationAdvancedDatabasesNoSQL databases (Redis)AdvancedContainerization / OrchestrationKubernetes for deployment and scalingAdvancedContainerization / OrchestrationDocker container buildAdvancedTestingWriting comprehensive unit, integration, and end-to-end testsAdvancedCore Experience
7+ years of professional experience in backend software development, with a significant focus on building and operating microservices in a production environment.
Proven ability to work with and contribute to large-scale, distributed systems.
Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP) for deployment, monitoring, and scaling.
Desired Qualifications
Process & Tools
CI/CD: Experience setting up and maintaining automated deployment pipelines
Observability: Proficiency with monitoring and logging tools
Source Control: Expertise in Git and collaborative workflows
Architecture & Design
Familiarity with event-driven architectures and streaming data processing
Experience with security best practices in API design (e.g., OAuth 2.0, JWT, input validation)
Knowledge of performance tuning and optimization techniques for both Python and Go applications
Key Responsibilities
Design, implement, and maintain scalable and reliable backend microservices using Go
Collaborate with product managers and front-end teams to define API specifications and integration points
Ensure services are deployed, monitored, and scaled efficiently in a Kubernetes environment
Participate in code reviews, design discussions, and planning sessions
Troubleshoot and resolve complex production issues, ensuring high availability and performance
Drive continuous improvement in development processes, tooling, and infrastructure
Must-have skills for a Senior Backend / Microservices Engineer (owner-level)
Production microservices ownership (not just “worked on”)
Has owned at least 1–2 services end-to-end (design → build → deploy → on-call → incident fixes → scaling)
Comfortable with service boundaries, APIs, versioning, backward compatibility, SLAs/SLOs
System design & architecture (senior bar)
Can design systems with tradeoffs: latency, throughput, cost, reliability
Patterns: idempotency, retries, timeouts, circuit breakers, async workflows, queues, eventual consistency
Data design: relational vs NoSQL, caching, indexing, migrations, multi-tenant considerations (if relevant)
Strong debugging & problem-solving in real-world scenarios
Can take an ambiguous production issue and drive it to resolution
Uses a structured approach: reproduce → isolate → instrument → hypothesis → validate → fix → prevent
Linux fundamentals (practical, daily-use)
Confident with commands/tools like: ps/top/htop, journalctl, systemctl, netstat/ss, lsof, curl, grep/sed/awk, strace (bonus), log parsing
Understands networking basics (DNS, TLS, ports, timeouts)
Docker + container runtime competence
Can explain Dockerfiles, layers, multi-stage builds, image size/security
Debug containers: env vars, volumes, entrypoints, networking, resource limits
Observability / logging / diagnostics
Strong in structured logging, correlation IDs, trace context
Metrics + tracing + logs as a system
Datadog experience is a must-have , or a very credible equivalent (Prometheus/Grafana + OpenTelemetry + ELK) with proof they can ramp fast
Platform maturity
CI/CD, release processes, rollback strategies
Basic security and reliability hygiene (secrets mgmt, least privilege, rate limiting)
Compensation
Compensation & Benefits
$140,000 – $200,000 USD per year (depending on experience and qualifications)
Benefits
401(k) retirement plan
Health, dental, and vision insurance
Paid time off (PTO) and company holidays
Flexible work arrangements
Professional development and training support
Performance-based bonuses (if applicable)
Originally posted on Himalayas
Who can apply
Eligible countries: United States. Accepted UTC offsets: UTC-10, UTC-9, UTC-8, UTC-7, UTC-6, UTC-5, UTC+14. Review the full description for employer-specific work authorization, residency and schedule requirements.