# Sr. Backend Engineer (Golang/Distributed Systems)

**Company:** [Unpack Holdings Limited](http://jobs.workable.com/companies/sueHKU8ApayZCd4tviyxSx.md)
**Location:** Remote
**Workplace:** remote
**Employment type:** Full-time

[Apply for this job](http://jobs.workable.com/view/c92bf31e-61a1-4618-ba7a-acf474a3d1dd)

## Description

### The Mission

We are looking for a battle-tested Senior Backend Engineer who thrives in high-velocity, 0-to-1 startup environments and builds distributed systems with extreme ownership.

This is **not** an enterprise role for someone who works behind heavy layers of management or hides behind ticket boards. We are scaling a high-throughput, event-driven platform built on **Golang, Node.js, Kafka, and GCP**, and we need an engineer who can own features end-to-end—from initial system design to production deployment in Kubernetes. You must bring deep, real-world experience handling high-concurrency event streams and complex data layers.

If you have a true startup builder's grit, take pride in high-impact coding exposure, and have the hands-on technical chops to conquer rigorous architectural assessments, we want to build with you.

### Key Responsibilities

-   **Core Distributed Backend Architecture:** Design, write, and maintain high-throughput backend microservices utilizing **Golang** as your primary language, backed by **Node.js (TypeScript)**.
-   **Event-Driven & Kafka Mastery:** Own and evolve our event-streaming infrastructure using **Apache Kafka**, handling complex partition strategies, message-ordering edge cases, and asynchronous workflows under heavy load.
-   **Database & In-Memory Performance:** Architect, scale, and optimize core data layers with heavy reliance on **Redis** for caching/pub-sub and **MongoDB** for flexible document indexing.
-   **Production Deployment & Cloud Alignment:** Deploy and manage your services within **Google Cloud Platform (GCP)** and **Kubernetes (K8s)** environments, taking complete ownership of service reliability.
-   **0-to-1 Feature Execution:** Rapidly translate ambiguous product requirements into clean, scalable RESTful and GraphQL APIs without waiting for hand-holding.
-   **Algorithmic & Quantitative Problem Solving:** Solve complex backend calculations natively within business logic (e.g., gaming mechanics, payout engines, or financial transaction loops).

## Requirements

-   **Dual-Language Proficiency (Golang + Node.js):** 5+ years of deep backend engineering experience with **elite Golang proficiency** as your main tool, plus strong production experience in **JavaScript/TypeScript (Node.js)**.
-   **Proven Kafka Expertise:** Extensive, **hands-on experience** architecting and maintaining production event streams using **Apache Kafka**. You understand consumer groups, offset management, message delivery guarantees, and race conditions.
-   **GCP & Kubernetes (K8s) Production Chops:** Real-world experience deploying, running, and debugging containerized Go services within **Google Cloud Platform (GCP)** and **Kubernetes**.
-   **High-Performance NoSQL Data:** Advanced understanding of data modeling, caching strategies, and indexing in **Redis** and **MongoDB**.
-   **Startup / 0-to-1 Track Record:** Prior experience working in small, fast-moving engineering teams or early-stage startups where high coding volume, self-direction, and end-to-end feature ownership were required.
-   **Assessment Readiness:** Ability to pass a rigorous, hands-on technical assessment evaluating real-world Go concurrency, system design, and Kafka event handling.

### Preferred Qualifications (Nice to Have)

-   **Quantitative/Math Aptitude:** Strong mathematical background or intuition for solving complex calculation problems related to gaming ecosystems, mechanics, or financial data layers.
-   **AI & Automation Curiosity:** Basic exposure to or interest in integrating LLMs, autonomous agentic workflows, or meta-prompting strategies into microservices.
-   **Timezone Alignment:** Availability to align working hours between **EST and Eastern Europe (EET)** business hours for high-bandwidth engineering communication.

## Benefits

### **Why Join Us?**

We offer more than just a standard software engineering seat; we offer the runway to drive the technical destiny of a global powerhouse.

-   **Extreme Architectural Sovereignty:** We value raw execution, system health, and clean code over bureaucratic red tape. If your design framework is robust and ready, you deploy it.
-   **A Culture of High-Talent Momentum:** Work alongside a highly competent, autonomous team that moves at lightspeed, actively supports your professional growth, and celebrates breakthroughs.
-   **High-Growth Upside:** We value "potential over pedigree." For a Senior Software Engineer who takes relentless ownership of end-to-end problems and systematically scales our platform's capacity, there is a clear, unrestricted runway into senior architecture and engineering leadership.