Senior Backend Engineer

Job Description

About the Role:

We are looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to own backend systems operating at this scale. This is a hands-on engineering role: you will design and run production services, optimize performance under concentrated assessment-window traffic, integrate AI/ML inference services (handwriting OCR, speech recognition) into the platform. You will also serve as a senior engineering anchor in our Pune office — mentoring engineers, driving code quality, and participating in architectural decisions.

Roles And Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable backend services and RESTful APIs in Python (FastAPI).
• Build secure, fault-tolerant systems that handle large, spiky production traffic — millions of students, with load concentrated during assessment windows.
• Design efficient database schemas and optimize performance across MongoDB and PostgreSQL in production.
• Contribute hands-on to our cloud migration from AWS to ESDS, including containerized deployments on Kubernetes.
• Integrate AI/ML inference services (OCR, ASR) into production pipelines, including async processing via message queues.
• Implement caching (Redis), monitoring and observability (New Relic), logging, and performance optimization strategies.
• Own CI/CD (GitHub Actions), Docker-based builds, and Kubernetes deployment workflows.
• Implement security best practices: authentication and authorization (OAuth2/JWT), encryption, and data protection aligned with DPDP Act obligations.
• Conduct code reviews, mentor engineers in the Pune office, and set engineering standards.
• Troubleshoot production issues and maintain system availability with minimal downtime.
• Participate in architectural discussions and contribute to technical roadmap planning alongside the CTO.
  
  

Required Skills & Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or any discipline.
• 3+ years of experience in backend software development.
• Strong proficiency in Python; production experience with FastAPI (or Flask/Django with demonstrated ability to work in FastAPI).
• Strong hands-on experience with MongoDB and PostgreSQL in production (schema design, indexing, query optimization).
• Production experience deploying and operating services on Kubernetes - not just familiarity; you should have run, debugged, and scaled workloads on K8s.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure, or Indian cloud providers); experience with cloud migrations is a strong plus.
• Good understanding of distributed systems, event-driven architecture, message queues, and caching mechanisms.
• Experience implementing authentication and authorization using OAuth2, JWT, or similar.
• Familiarity with Git, CI/CD pipelines, and automated testing.
• Strong debugging and diagnostic reasoning — we value the ability to work through unfamiliar failures methodically over recall of specific frameworks.
• Excellent communication and collaboration abilities; comfortable being the senior on-ground engineering presence in the office.
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience running high-traffic consumer or SaaS applications in production.
• Experience integrating ML inference services (vLLM, ONNX Runtime, GPU-backed APIs) into backend systems.
• Familiarity with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Helm, etc.).
• Experience with data protection and compliance requirements (DPDP Act or similar).
• Experience in EdTech, social impact, or public sector domains.
  
  

Details

• Location: Kothrud, Pune.
• Interested candidates should fill in the application on career website
• https://careers.vopa.in/
• Salary :- 10 LPA to 12 LPA (Depending on last drawn salary, Interview and Skills)
  
  

Salary Range

₹10,00,000 – ₹12,00,000