Senior Software Engineer - Backend Services

We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer-Backend Services to help design and build distributed systems that power products used by millions of users. In this role, you will serve as a hands-on technical anchor within the backend services team, contributing directly to system architecture, engineering quality, and scalable platform development.

This is a high-autonomy role suited for an experienced engineer who thrives in complex environments, takes ownership of technical decisions, and enjoys building reliable, high-performance systems at scale. You will collaborate closely with product, platform, and data teams to design and deliver backend services that are fast, resilient, and maintainable.

The ideal candidate has deep experience with distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and event-driven architectures, and is comfortable leading technical discussions, mentoring engineers, and driving best practices across the team.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate high-throughput, low-latency backend services and APIs for distributed systems at scale.
• Develop and maintain RESTful APIs and GraphQL services, ensuring clean schema design, versioning, and strong performance.
• Architect and evolve event-driven systems using Kafka or similar technologies, ensuring reliable delivery, exactly-once semantics, and failure handling.
• Champion a strong testing culture through unit, integration, and contract testing as a core part of development.
• Implement Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using tools such as Terraform, Pulumi, or AWS CDK for repeatable and version-controlled infrastructure.
• Design and manage cloud environments (AWS, GCP, or Azure) including networking, containers, autoscaling, and cost optimization.
• Build and improve CI/CD pipelines that enforce quality gates and enable reliable, automated deployments.
• Own complex engineering initiatives end-to-end, from technical design through production launch and reliability.
• Make architectural decisions that balance immediate needs with long-term system health and scalability.
• Lead technical design and code reviews, maintaining high standards for performance, correctness, and maintainability.
• Identify and reduce technical debt to improve development velocity and operational reliability.
• Collaborate with product, platform, and data teams to translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions.
• Debug and resolve complex production incidents, contributing to postmortems and long-term fixes.
• Mentor junior and mid-level engineers through pairing, feedback, and knowledge sharing.
• Contribute to engineering hiring through technical interviews and candidate evaluations.

Requirements

• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a strong focus on backend systems
• Expert-level proficiency in Java, Python, or Node.js, with production experience in at least one
• Strong experience building distributed systems and scalable microservices architectures
• Hands-on experience with event streaming or messaging platforms (Kafka preferred; RabbitMQ, SQS/SNS, Pulsar, or similar also valuable)
• Proven experience designing and delivering RESTful APIs and GraphQL services
• Strong experience with test-driven development, including unit, integration, and contract testing
• Experience managing cloud infrastructure using Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform, Pulumi, or AWS CDK
• Experience deploying and operating services in cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure
• Experience building and managing CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, CircleCI, GitLab CI, etc.)
• Strong understanding of distributed systems concepts, including consistency models, idempotency, partition tolerance, and observability
• Experience delivering complex projects with measurable impact
• Strong written and verbal English communication skills
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience
• Must be located in Latam.

Nice to Have

• Experience working with multiple backend languages (Java, Python, and Node.js)
• Experience building internal developer platforms or shared infrastructure tools
• Familiarity with stream processing frameworks such as Apache Flink, Spark Streaming, or Kafka Streams
• Contributions to open-source projects or technical publications
• Experience working in high-growth technology companies with strong engineering cultures

Benefits

• Work remotely Monday - Friday, 40 hours a week (no weekends)
• Vacation: 10 business days a year
• Holidays: 5 National Holidays a year
• Company Holidays: 5 Company Holidays a year (Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, Zipdev Day)
• Parental Leave
• Health Care Reimbursement
• Active Lifestyle Reimbursement
• Quarterly Home Office Reimbursement
• Payroll Deduction Purchase Plans
• Longevity Bonus
• Continuous Learning Bonus
• Access to Training and Professional Development Platforms
• Did we mention it's REMOTE?!!

One of our core values at Zipdev is "Be authentic." that's why we encourage you to answer the application form in your own words; we are interested in getting to know you, not a digital assistant.

Wondering how our remote environment or our payment method work? We've put together some helpful answers in our FAQs at the bottom our our career site. Take a look and let us know if you have any other questions!