Senior Backend Engineer
💰 $120,000 – $170,000/yrMarket estimate · not provided by the employer
Job Description
About Loot Labs
Loot Labs is on a mission to make collecting fun. We believe that every collectible tells a story of passion, nostalgia, and discovery. Through our flagship product, Boxed.gg, we are reimagining how the world collects by blending digital entertainment with tangible rewards, delivering nostalgia and discovery straight to fans' doorsteps.
Since our inception in 2023, we've experienced significant year-over-year growth and are now gearing up for our most ambitious year yet, with major expansions planned across product offerings, strategic partnerships, and next-generation collector experiences. We've served 500k collectors and foster an active community of over 125k+ Discord members.
Why Join Loot Labs?
Community First: We've built a thriving community of 500k collectors with 125k+ active Discord members who are passionate about what we're building.
Ambitiously Led: Our leadership team includes veterans from Microsoft, Twitch, 2K, and Boeing who bring proven expertise and vision.
Remote-First Culture: We value high autonomy, low ego, and trust our team to build from anywhere in the world. You'll have the freedom and responsibility to own your work.
Fast Impact: You'll own features end-to-end and see your impact in days, not months.
Collaborative Environment: Work alongside people who ship fast and care about the details, taking ownership in ambiguous situations and shaping solutions together.
Role Overview: Senior Backend Engineer
We're hiring a Senior Backend Engineer to design and scale the systems behind our products. You'll lead architecture discussions, ship secure and performant APIs, and collaborate closely across the stack. We're looking for someone who doesn't just write code, but owns the full system lifecycle from design to debugging to iteration.
This is a full-time, remote position ideal for engineers in North America. You must have 5+ hours of overlap with US Pacific Time (9am–6pm PT) and be fluent in English. Occasional U.S. travel is required for in-person collaboration, team offsites, and company events.
Key Responsibilities
Design, build, and maintain reliable, scalable backend services using AWS infrastructure including DynamoDB, Lambda, S3, AppSync, Cognito, and SQS.
Architect and implement solutions using SST (Serverless Stack) v2 and v3 with Infrastructure as Code best practices, ensuring maintainability and scalability.
Develop and maintain GraphQL APIs and application logic in TypeScript, building systems that are both performant and developer-friendly.
Lead system design, data modeling, and architectural decisions that prioritize scalability, performance, and long-term maintainability.
Own solutions from planning through debugging, ensuring production systems are secure, reliable, and efficient.
Collaborate with frontend engineers, product managers, and other stakeholders to deliver features that delight collectors worldwide.
Mentor junior engineers and contribute to raising the technical bar across the organization.
What We're Looking For
5+ Years Backend Experience: Proven track record building production backend systems at scale, with deep understanding of system design principles.
AWS Expertise: Hands-on experience with AWS services (DynamoDB, Lambda, S3, AppSync, Cognito, SQS) and serverless architecture patterns.
Infrastructure as Code: Strong proficiency with IaC tools and frameworks, ideally experience with SST or similar serverless frameworks.
GraphQL Mastery: Demonstrated expertise building and maintaining GraphQL APIs in production environments.
TypeScript Proficiency: Strong command of TypeScript for building type-safe, maintainable backend services.
System Design: Ability to design systems with scalability, performance, and reliability at the forefront.
Data Modeling: Experience designing efficient, scalable data models and database schemas.
Ownership Mentality: You thrive when you can own projects end-to-end and drive them to completion with minimal supervision.
Communication Skills: Fluent English speaker comfortable in fast-paced, collaborative environments. Ability to articulate complex technical concepts clearly.
Time Zone Compatibility: Must maintain 5+ hours daily overlap with US Pacific Time for real-time collaboration.
Nice-to-Have Qualifications
Experience with collectibles, gaming, or e-commerce platforms.
Background in developer experience (DevEx) or platform engineering.
Experience scaling systems to handle millions of requests and large user bases.
Contributions to open-source projects or technical leadership experience.
What Success Looks Like
In your first 30 days, you'll onboard into our codebase, understand our current architecture, and ship your first meaningful contribution. Within 90 days, you'll be leading the design and implementation of critical backend systems, collaborating with the team on major architectural decisions, and mentoring other engineers. Within six months, you'll have significantly improved system reliability, scalability, or performance, and be recognized as a key technical leader within the organization.
💰 Compensation not publicly listed. Market estimate for similar roles: from $120K, varying by experience and location.