Backend Engineer (Node.js, Python)

Role overview

You will join the Music Discovery Platform team as a Principal Backend Engineer within the data team. You’ll lead the architecture and development of scalable, high-performance backend systems that enable music metadata management and discovery via reliable, low-latency APIs.

Responsibilities

• Architect and build secure, scalable APIs for music catalog, recommendation, and search
• Design data models and manage integrations with third-party music metadata providers, streaming services, and analytics platforms
• Lead backend engineering by setting coding standards, running code reviews, and mentoring junior engineers
• Collaborate with product managers, frontend developers, and data teams to define API specifications and ensure smooth user experiences
• Optimize performance for low latency and high availability
• Implement observability (monitoring, logging, alerting) to maintain reliability
• Evaluate and adopt new technologies and frameworks to improve system capabilities and development efficiency
• Participate in technical planning, troubleshooting, and continuous improvement

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in backend services development
• Strong backend development skills with Node.js and/or Python (also lists Go)
• Deep understanding of API design, microservices architecture, and cloud-native development
• Hands-on experience with GCP, AWS, or Azure
• Experience with Docker and Kubernetes
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines for automated deployment and testing
• Strong knowledge of PostgreSQL and BigQuery, plus caching strategies and message queues (Kafka or RabbitMQ)

Nice to have

• Music metadata standards, recommendation systems, or audio streaming APIs
• Machine learning pipelines / recommendation engines
• Audio streaming services, music theory, or digital signal processing
• Contributions to open-source or technical writing

Location / work setup

• Fully remote (United States)