What You'll Own
Own and evolve backend systems: scalability, reliability, performance, developer experience
Lead core data model work
Reduce tech debt and improve critical paths
Build tooling and services for content creation, project automation, validations, and documentation
Collaborate end-to-end with product and frontend
Collaborate with non-technical members of the team (support, growth)
Speak directly with NextWork learners in the community
Requirements
Must-Have
6-10 years of professional engineering experience (Staff Software Engineer level). Will consider 4-5 years if stellar with strong career progression.
First or early engineer at a startup with 0-to-1 ownership. Has built something from zero to one.
Consistent scope and title progression over time
Owned a core product domain (not just features) end-to-end
Proactively identifies product or system problems without being told
Clear, measurable impact in previous roles
Comfortable with ambiguity. Phrases like "defined the problem," "drove strategy," and "owned the roadmap" should be in their vocabulary.
Cross-functional collaborator who has shipped with product and design under real constraints
Pragmatic about tradeoffs: build vs. buy, boring tech, fast V1S
Recent experience on small or early-stage teams
Positive, practical adoption of AI in their workflow
Based in Austin or willing to relocate. 5 days a week, in-person at West 6th Street.
Nice-to-Have
RAG experience
SEO awareness
Graph-based data modeling
Prior work at consumer or prosumer companies with a high engineering bar (Linear, Canva, comparable)
Backend experience in Go, Node/TypeScript
Prior EdTech, creator economy, or community platform engineering experience
Salary :
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