Backend Engineer

You'll build and scale the systems that power Pocket's AI experience, from real-time transcription pipelines to cloud sync and intelligent APIs. You'll work closely with our mobile and AI teams to make Pocket faster, more reliable, and infinitely scalable. This isn't a founding role, but it's core to the product. You'll join a small, high-output team that ships at the level of world-class consumer tech companies. What you'll own Backend Development - Design and build RESTful APIs in Node.js and TypeScript (Express.js or Nest.js). - Architect and maintain PostgreSQL databases; optimize schema design and queries. - Implement background jobs and queues using Redis for ingestion, summarization, and notifications. - Build and maintain caching layers (Redis, CDN, HTTP cache) for low-latency responses. - Implement authentication, authorization, and data privacy best practices. - Add real-time capabilities (WebSockets, Server-Sent Events) for live sync and streaming. - Build observability into every service: logging, metrics, and tracing by default. - Deploy and manage backend services on AWS (EC2, ECS, RDS, S3, Lambda). Systems & Architecture - Design clean, maintainable service architectures with clear ownership boundaries. - Plan and execute safe database migrations and schema evolutions. - Ensure consistency and reliability across distributed systems. - Optimize performance across I/O, CPU, and memory bottlenecks. - Implement CI/CD pipelines and release automation (GitHub Actions, Docker). - Contribute to infrastructure reliability: scaling, monitoring, and cost efficiency. Quality & Security - Write unit, integration, and contract tests with clear coverage thresholds. - Enforce linting, type safety, and static analysis as part of CI. - Conduct security reviews and dependency audits; follow least-privilege design. - Document services, endpoints, and decision trade-offs clearly. What we're looking for Technical Requirements - 2+ years of backend experience with Node.js and TypeScript. - Strong understanding of PostgreSQL (schema design, indexing, query optimization). - Experience with Redis (caching, queues). - Hands-on AWS experience (EC2, RDS, Lambda, ECS, S3). - API design fluency: REST, real-time (WebSockets/SSE). - Strong fundamentals in scalability, concurrency, and distributed systems. - Comfort with Docker, Git workflows, and CI/CD automation. - Familiarity with security and performance best practices. Nice to Have - Experience with GraphQL or gRPC. - Exposure to event-driven architectures or microservices. - Familiarity with observability tools (OpenTelemetry, CloudWatch, Sentry). - Experience building for high-traffic consumer apps. Technologies We Use - Backend: Node.js, TypeScript (Express/Nest.js), PostgreSQL, Redis - Cloud: AWS (EC2, RDS, Lambda, S3, ECS, CloudWatch) - Infra: Docker, GitHub Actions, CI/CD What we offer - Work directly with us and learn fast - Direct impact on how the company operates day to day - High-trust, high-responsibility environment - Competitive compensation