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).
