Opinionated: Deep level of understanding of the technological landscape, making both high level system and granular code design decisions based on understanding rather than preference - diving deep on unknown patterns in order to build the best product. You’ll drive architectural decisions that balance “what must work today” with “what must scale tomorrow,” owning systems that are low-latency, resilient, and cost-aware.
Numbers & Facts
Location
New York, New York
Website
raylu.ai
Description
Position Summary
We’re hiring a Senior Backend Engineer to be the scaling expert behind our core systems. You’ll drive architectural decisions that balance “what must work today” with “what must scale tomorrow,” owning systems that are low-latency, resilient, and cost-aware.
What we’re looking for
TS-first backend: Expert in Node/Typescript services; bonus points for production Go.
Systems & scale: Deep grasp of memory management, distributed systems, durable execution, and edge functions.
Queues & state: Hands-on with Temporal (or equivalent durable workflows) and Redis at scale.
Cloud & reliability: Comfortable shipping/operating in modern cloud environments with strong observability habits.
LLM-aware: Familiarity with LLM integrations and their operational quirks is a plus.
Product sense: You make pragmatic tradeoffs, communicate risk clearly, and choose designs that unblock the roadmap.
Opinionated: Deep level of understanding of the technological landscape, making both high level system and granular code design decisions based on understanding rather than preference - diving deep on unknown patterns in order to build the best product.
Responsibilities
Architect, build, and operate backend services that are fast, fault-tolerant, and easy to evolve.
Define service boundaries, data models, and contracts that keep teams moving independently.
Establish performance baselines and SLOs; design for durability and graceful degradation.
Lead technical design reviews and mentor engineers across code quality, testing, and ops.
Own critical systems: queue orchestration (Temporal), caching (Redis), and infra automation.
Nice to have
Prior work with agentic/LLM workflows
Logistics
Compensation: $165K - $250K salary, $100K-200K equivalent in new hire equity (4 year vest)
Location: New York City. We are a fully in-office team working out of Midtown Manhattan Monday through Friday. We allow for WFH days when anyone is traveling, but we do not allow for permanent remote work.