Backend Engineer
Role details
Job location
Tech stack
Job description
The Role (Read-Carefully) This is a hands-on, senior individual contributor role on a small, high-throughput platform team.
You will own and operate real production systems. You will ship to production early. You will be on-call for the systems you touch. You will be expected to design your part well - and live with the consequences.
This role is not about exploration, endless design, or theoretical elegance. It is about turning ambiguity into working systems under pressure.
If you are looking for:
A gentle ramp A large team with safety nets A role where someone else owns production
This is not the job.
What You Will Do Own one or more production agent workflows or platform components end-to-end Build and operate event-driven systems processing thousands of records per job and millions of events per day Design for failure: retries, DLQs, isolation boundaries, alarms, and recovery paths Add telemetry and dashboards to understand job state, throughput, and failure modes Ship changes safely using CI/CD checks and deployment guardrails Participate in on-call rotation and incident response Debug production issues with incomplete information and time pressure Make tradeoffs explicit and ship decision artifacts (code, docs, fixes) Improve code quality, tests, and operational clarity in areas you own Work closely with the CEO, COO, and senior engineer on real system constraints
Requirements
Strong Ruby fundamentals as a design tool (encapsulation, boundaries, responsibility), not just syntax Hands-on experience shipping and operating production systems you personally supported Real-world AWS experience, especially Lambda, SQS, EventBridge, S3, CloudWatch
Firsthand experience with: Lambda limits and failure modes Retries, DLQs, timeouts, and backpressure Cost, blast radius, and operational tradeoffs Comfort making decisions with incomplete data and shipping anyway Willingness to be on-call and accountable for outcomes Clear communicator who externalizes thinking and closes loops
Disqualifiers (Read Honestly) Only academic, tutorial, or toy-project experience No on-call or incident ownership "I was part of the team" without first-person responsibility Service-name listing without discussion of outcomes or tradeoffs Preference for extended exploration over shipping Avoidance of pressure, accountability, or ownership
Nice to Have Experience in fintech, banking, or regulated environments Exposure to automation, orchestration, or workflow engines Experience operating multi-tenant systems at scale Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and deployment safety mechanisms
Benefits & conditions
Salary: $150,000 - $180,000 per year
A bit about us:
Our Client builds agentic automation software for credit unions and community banks, turning slow, error-prone loan operations into fast, autonomous, and reliable workflows. Our platform orchestrates document ingestion, data validation, borrower communication, and downstream integrations using autonomous agents that must be correct, observable, and resilient. This is production software. Failures matter. Observability is required. Ownership is non-negotiable.
For the past decade, we've mastered deploying autonomous agents in one of the most tightly controlled industries - even engineering ways to operate without APIs in systems designed to resist automation. Today, we're building Agent Valeria, the first-ever indirect loan packet reviewer that can audit applications end-to-end and deliver compliance decisions autonomously. By solving the slowest, most error-prone part of lending, we are accelerating lending velocity, reducing mistakes, and reshaping how banks and credit unions work. This is a rare greenfield opportunity to leave a lasting mark on an entire industry, building systems that matter, re-shape how work is done, and endure.
We are a lean, bootstrapped team operating 15+ customer systems at scale. Every engineer carries meaningful responsibility. We are self-sustaining and control our financial destiny.
Why join us?
Big impact - Join a core team where your code directly affects users and outcomes. Hands-on autonomy - You'll own projects end-to-end and help shape system architecture from the ground up. Smart, no-fluff culture - Work with a team that values clarity, extreme ownership, and fast iteration. Mission-driven - Build tools that help community banks compete in a world of megafintech. Startup agility - Ship daily. Influence product. Leave a legacy.
If you like building durable, production-grade systems that solve real problems-and doing it alongside talented engineers who care deeply about their craft-this is the place., How We Work Small team. Real ownership. We ship frequently. We design for failure. We expect engineers to understand how their code behaves in production. We value clarity, judgment, and durability over polish. Feedback is direct. Responsibility is real.
The Reality Check This is a small tiger team. Long hours at times. Occasional weekends. Ambiguous problems. Little guidance. Solo ownership.
Average pay. High responsibility. Failure is possible.
In return: Meaningful ownership Recognition The chance to build systems that matter - and last Growth Path This role is already senior in responsibility.
Success means: You reliably own and operate production systems You reduce failure rates and improve visibility You earn deeper architectural ownership through trust, not tenure
Professional and financial growth comes from taking on meaningful responsibility and delivering outcomes that enable Shastic to seize a rare, high-impact opportunity.
