Rowboat Software

Overview of job

Strong written and verbal English is a hard requirement for this role — please read on with that in mind.

You’ll be a core contributor on the backend that sits at the center of our business — the system of record for nearly everything the company does. It’s a mature, high-throughput platform, and you’re joining a small team that owns it, working alongside the platform architect and a Principal Engineer. The work is hands-on and deeply technical, and you’ll be trusted with real components and features from the start.

This is a strong role for an experienced engineer who wants to do real work on a real system: meaningful ownership over what you ship, exposure to architectural decisions, and a clear path to expanding scope as you build context and earn trust.

What you’ll work with

• AWS AppSync (GraphQL) — a single annotated schema compiled into multiple role-scoped APIs, backed by a large library of VTL resolvers and pipeline functions assembled through a custom build system.
• Amazon DynamoDB — single-table design with composite (PK/SK) keys, multiple GSIs, Streams, TTL, and PITR. The primary source of truth for the platform.
• AWS Lambda (TypeScript/Node.js) — many functions in an Nx monorepo, bundled with esbuild: API resolvers, queue consumers, stream processors, and Step Function tasks.
• AWS Step Functions — orchestration of multi-step workflows (order fulfillment, settlement/payout, lifecycle state machines).
• Event-driven processing — DynamoDB Streams, SQS, and Kinesis.
• Secondary data systems — Aurora MySQL, ClickHouse, OpenSearch, and Turbopuffer (vector/semantic search).
• Third-party integrations — Stripe, Pusher, Etsy, Amazon Cognito, and Sentry.
• Infrastructure as Code — Terraform/OpenTofu managing dev, test, and production.
• Testing — Jest (unit/integration) and Vitest end-to-end suites running against live AppSync APIs.

Responsibilities

• Build, extend, and maintain features across the core backend repository and related backend services.
• Implement GraphQL APIs and their resolver pipelines, including VTL mapping logic and the supporting Lambda functions.
• Work with the existing DynamoDB access patterns and indexes — extending them carefully and flagging when a change has broader implications.
• Build event-driven and orchestrated workflows (Streams, SQS, Step Functions) that are idempotent, observable, and resilient to partial failure.
• Diagnose production issues across the data, API, and integration layers — reasoning to root cause, not symptoms.
• Make infrastructure changes through Terraform/OpenTofu when your work requires them.
• Participate in code review and design discussions; raise alternatives and trade-offs rather than just executing.
• Contribute to and uphold the team’s documentation culture (architecture decisions, patterns, and gotchas get written down).

Required qualifications

• 5+ years of professional backend engineering experience (7+ preferred), with significant time in production systems on AWS.
• Hands-on AWS experience across core serverless and data services — Lambda, DynamoDB, IAM, SQS, S3, CloudWatch — and comfort working with infrastructure managed by Terraform/OpenTofu.
• Working knowledge of DynamoDB and NoSQL data modeling — composite keys, GSIs, access patterns — with an understanding of why those choices matter at scale.
• Production TypeScript/Node.js proficiency.
• Strong written and verbal English, including the ability to produce clear documentation and communicate effectively with stakeholders in other time zones.
• A track record of shipping reliable production code and taking responsibility for the work you put your name on.

Strongly preferred

• AWS AppSync and GraphQL resolver experience (VTL a plus).
• Event-driven architecture and workflow orchestration (Step Functions, Streams, queues).
• Experience operating systems where data correctness and reliability matter — payments, ordering, anything money-touching.
• Working experience with relational databases, search databases, or vector databases / embeddings.
• Image processing and color management for print (Sharp/ImageMagick, ICC profiles, RGB→CMYK).
• PDF internals, vector/SVG manipulation, or font engineering (pdf-lib, SVGO, fontTools/FontForge).
• Headless browser rendering (Puppeteer/Chromium) for high-fidelity output.
• Hands-on experience with AI agent orchestration, multi-agent workflows, and validation strategies — using harnesses like Claude Code or Pi to drive real engineering work, not just chat-style assistance.