Staff Backend Engineer (Node.js/TypeScript)

Staff Backend Engineer (Node.js/TypeScript)

We are looking for a Staff Backend Engineer (Node.js/TypeScript) to join a US-based logistics software company building a workforce management platform for delivery businesses. The product serves companies that run on large networks of independent contractor drivers, bringing onboarding, compliance, and ongoing workforce administration into one place. Its customers are delivery operations across the United States. You will take ownership of the backend's technical direction and long-term health as the most senior backend engineer in the company: making architectural decisions, setting engineering standards, and staying hands-on with the code that matters most. You will work closely with the product team to turn feature ideas into clear technical plans, support other engineers on hard problems, and keep a live, money-handling system reliable as the company grows. The ideal candidate enjoys solving technical challenges, takes ownership of their work, and leads through hands-on engineering rather than formal authority.

Requirements

• 8+ years of professional backend development experience
• Several years of experience as the senior technical owner of a production system worked on by other engineers
• Strong commercial experience with Node.js and TypeScript
• Strong experience with PostgreSQL or other relational databases
• Experience designing systems with strict correctness requirements, such as payments or audit trails
• Experience improving a live production system without resorting to a full rewrite
• Daily use of AI coding tools as a core part of your development workflow
• Experience advising other engineers on complex technical problems
• Ability to explain technical constraints and trade-offs to product and business stakeholders
• Availability for at least 3 hours of daily overlap with US Eastern Time (EST)
• Excellent English communication skills

Nice to Have

• Experience in contractor management, HR tech, or compliance software
• Experience working in a small team or early-stage company
• Considered views on where AI-generated code belongs in a production codebase

Responsibilities

• Own the technical direction of the backend and make architectural decisions with the reasoning documented
• Set engineering standards for service boundaries, data modelling, API design, error handling, and observability
• Write code regularly on core abstractions, hard problems, and work that sets patterns for the team
• Take accountability for the reliability, performance, and maintainability of the backend
• Diagnose and fix structural problems such as slow endpoints, lock contention, and fragile migrations
• Keep the codebase in a state where new engineers can become productive quickly
• Turn product intent into broken-down, sequenced technical plans for the engineering team
• Provide honest effort estimates and flag unrealistic plans before commitments are made
• Advise senior engineers on hard problems and act as a sounding board for designs before implementation
• Improve testing, release process, review flow, and technical documentation