Staff Backend Engineer

Staff Backend / Platform Engineer (Remote – Brazil)

Location: Remote - Brazil/Chile/Argentina

Team: Engineering

Our Client Is

Our client is a venture-backed vertical SaaS company building mission-critical system-of-record software for the debt collection and accounts receivable industry. This is a highly regulated, compliance-driven financial domain with deep technical complexity and a large, underserved market.

Backed by top-tier investors, the company has achieved strong customer traction, exceptional retention, and long-term contracts. Rather than competing with other startups, the company primarily replaces outdated legacy systems that have dominated the industry for decades.

Engineering is central to the company's success. The team is small, remote-first, and operates with high ownership, accountability, and speed.

Role Overview

Our client is hiring a Staff Backend / Platform Engineer to help design and scale the core backend systems while laying the foundation for infrastructure reliability and operational excellence.

This is a senior, hands-on role that blends:

• ~70% backend engineering
• ~30% platform / SRE responsibilities

You will function as a strong backend engineer while also owning key aspects of infrastructure, reliability, and developer tooling. This role has meaningful architectural influence and is critical to the company's growth over the next 6–12 months.

Key Responsibilities

Backend Engineering

• Design and develop scalable, maintainable backend features using Python and Django
• Build and maintain API and SFTP integrations with external systems
• Optimize database performance (query tuning, indexing, partitioning)
• Own backend architecture decisions and contribute to long-term technical strategy
• Deliver production-ready features in a fast-moving startup environment

Platform / SRE Responsibilities

• Maintain and improve AWS-based infrastructure, including EKS (Kubernetes)
• Manage and evolve CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions)
• Monitor system health, performance, and uptime
• Set up and maintain alerting, logging, and observability tooling
• Support on-call rotations and help triage production issues
• Improve developer experience through tooling, automation, and environment management

Required Experience

Backend

• Strong experience with Python and Django (Django is required)
• Experience building scalable backend systems in production
• Hands-on experience with API and SFTP integrations
• Proven ability to optimize and troubleshoot Postgres databases

Platform / DevOps

• Experience with AWS
• Working knowledge of Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Helm
• Experience managing CI/CD pipelines
• Familiarity with Redis and distributed systems
• Prior responsibility for DevOps or infrastructure at an early-stage startup (formal SRE title not required)

Who You Are

• A senior engineer who thrives in early-stage startup environments
• Comfortable owning large, ambiguous problems end-to-end
• Highly proactive, responsive, and self-directed in a remote setting
• Strong communicator with excellent English (accent is fine)
• Motivated by impact, ownership, and building foundational systems
• Able to move fast without sacrificing quality in a regulated environment

Nice to Have

• Previous experience at a VC-backed startup (Series A or earlier)
• Background as a backend engineer who took on platform or DevOps ownership
• Experience building internal tooling for engineering teams

Why This Role

• High-impact, high-ownership role on a small, senior team
• Opportunity to shape backend architecture and platform foundations
• Long-term customers and strong product-market fit
• Competitive compensation and meaningful equity
• Fully remote with a strong preference for Brazil, Chile, Argentina