Lead Backend Software Engineer - Full Stack & AI Platform

EdTheory USA (headquartered in California) is Hiring Lead Backend Software Engineer

We are currently inviting applications from Lead Backend Software Engineers interested in working remotely with one of the fastest-growing Special Education and Therapy Staffing brands in California.

Location: Remote

We are currently inviting applications from Lead Backend Software Engineer interested in working with one of the fastest growing Special Education and Therapy Staffing brand in California!

Why You'll Love EdTheory

EdTheory people-first culture is rooted in Compassion, Integrity, Diversity, and Servant Leadership, creating an environment where employees feel valued, supported, and empowered to grow.

Nationally Recognized for Culture & Growth

• Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies
• SF Chronicle Top Workplace Greater Bay Area
• Top Workplaces Culture Excellence Award Purpose & Values

Apply today to join a mission-driven organization that values mental health professionals and puts students first.

Why This Role

This is an opportunity to be a key technical contributor shaping the backend and AI systems layer of an iOS-first AI platform from the early stages. You'll have meaningful ownership over service architecture, work closely with the iOS team to deliver seamless end-to-end experiences, build the infrastructure supporting AI-powered features, and help establish the technical foundation as the company grows.

Role Overview

Backend & AI Systems Development

• Lead the architecture and development of production-ready backend services and APIs from the ground up.
• Design a modular, maintainable, scalable, and testable backend architecture.
• Build reliable, performant services with a strong focus on scalability, stability, and observability.
• Work on data modeling, service orchestration, caching, queuing, concurrency, and complex data flows.
• Design and scale systems supporting AI-heavy and real-time workloads.
• Establish technical foundations and engineering practices that allow the backend platform to evolve as the product grows.
• Make thoughtful architectural decisions around scalability, maintainability, performance, and developer experience.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to other engineers as the team grows.

Full-Stack & Platform Collaboration

• Contribute across the stack, including client integrations, databases, and cloud infrastructure.
• Work closely with the iOS team to deliver seamless end-to-end product experiences.
• Design and maintain reliable APIs and interfaces that support the iOS application and future clients.
• Participate in architectural decisions across backend, AI, and iOS layers.
• Troubleshoot and solve problems across the stack when needed rather than being limited to the backend layer.
• Collaborate with iOS and AI engineers to establish reliable interfaces and scalable system boundaries.

Technical Leadership

• Take ownership of key technical areas and help shape the overall engineering direction of the platform.
• Establish and promote engineering best practices around architecture, testing, code quality, observability, and performance.
• Mentor engineers and contribute to the growth of the engineering team in India.
• Participate in technical design discussions, code reviews, and architectural planning.
• Help balance long-term technical quality with the speed and pragmatism required in a startup product environment.

What were looking for

Required Experience & Skills

• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience, with significant hands-on experience building production backend systems.
• Strong expertise in Node.js, JavaScript, and Python, and modern service-oriented development practices.
• Deep understanding of distributed systems, concurrency, networking, data modeling, performance optimization, and testing.
• Proven experience designing and shipping production-quality backend services and APIs.
• Experience making architectural decisions for complex systems and evolving codebases.
• Hands-on experience with cloud platforms, databases, and infrastructure-as-code.
• Comfortable working across the stack when needed to solve end-to-end product and engineering problems.
• Experience mentoring engineers and providing technical guidance.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills.
• Comfortable working in a start-up environment with a high degree of ownership and evolving priorities.
• Strong interest in building AI-powered products and experiences.

Nice to Have

• Experience with AI-powered applications or AI integrations.
• Experience with real-time applications or streaming.
• Experience with distributed backend systems at scale.
• Experience with cloud platforms and modern DevOps practices.
• Experience leading or contributing to the growth of an engineering team.
• Experience working with distributed engineering teams.

How to Apply

We review every application carefully. If you are excited by the mission and the technical challenge, we would love to hear from you.

Send your resume and a brief note on why this role excites you to [email removed] with the subject line: Lead Backend Engineer – Application

We are an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applications from engineers worldwide regardless of location, background, or experience path.