Senior Backend Engineer

Role Overview

Our client is seeking a high-caliber Senior Backend Engineer (10+ years) to spearhead the development of a brand-new data valuation marketplace. This is a critical, contract-to-hire role designed for an entrepreneurial engineer who thrives in a fast-paced startup environment and excels at 0-to-1 engineering.The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in building transactional platforms (such as marketplaces, commerce engines, or shopping cart workflows) and possesses the rare balance of visionary architectural leadership and high-impact, hands-on coding.Key Responsibilities

• Technical Leadership (0 → 1): Architect, design, and deliver the core backend infrastructure from scratch. Define technical standards, processes, and system design decisions ensuring long-term scalability, security, and performance.
• Hands-On Engineering: Write, review, and optimize production-grade code. Build robust microservices, backend APIs, and integration pipelines using Node.js, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, and AWS serverless patterns.
• Marketplace Engineering: Design and implement end-to-end transactional workflows, including shopping carts, payment gateways, complex listing logic, and pricing/valuation engines.
• Cross-Border Team Leadership: Manage and mentor a distributed engineering team. Lead daily synchronization meetings with the offshore engineering team in Taiwan (requires regular availability between 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM PT).
• Agile Execution: Bridge the gap between product strategy and technical execution, delivering rapid MVPs without compromising architectural integrity.

Required Qualifications & Experience

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a heavy emphasis on backend and distributed systems.
• Proven track record building and scaling marketplaces, e-commerce engines, transactional pipelines, or fintech platforms.
• Advanced pro