# Senior / Lead Backend Engineer

**Company:** [General Intuition](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/general-intuition)
**Location:** New York, NY
**Role:** Backend Engineering
**Salary:** $180k – $275k/yr
**Experience:** 5+ years
**Skills:** Java, Microservices, REST APIs, Distributed Systems, MySQL, Postgres, GCP, AWS, Kubernetes, Terraform, Redis, RabbitMQ, CI/CD, Infrastructure As Code, System Design
**Posted:** 2026-07-14

> The Senior/Lead Backend Engineer will architect and build scalable, low-latency Java services, APIs, and infrastructure supporting millions of users. The role requires 5+ years of backend experience, distributed-systems expertise, database performance knowledge, and strong technical leadership.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Architect and build highly scalable, low-latency backend systems.
- Design critical APIs and evolve backend infrastructure.
- Build real-time communications, storage, ML-based feed, and social-feature systems serving millions of users.
- Drive technical decisions with product, infrastructure, and data teams.
- Mentor other engineers and lead cross-team projects.

## Requirements
- 5+ years of backend engineering experience, including significant production experience.
- Strong proficiency in Java and hands-on experience building scalable microservices.
- Deep understanding of RESTful API design and distributed systems.
- Experience with MySQL or PostgreSQL, including performance tuning and schema design.
- Experience building systems handling thousands of requests per second.
- Familiarity with cloud infrastructure, preferably Google Cloud or AWS.
- Experience with CI/CD and infrastructure as code.
- Strong understanding of system design, architectural patterns, and security best practices.
- Strong communication and leadership skills.

## Nice-to-haves
- Redis, RabbitMQ, or other message brokers and caching systems.
- SRE, DevOps, or DevSecOps experience.

## Technology Stack
- Java, Redis, RabbitMQ, and Kubernetes for backend systems.
- Terraform, Salt, GitHub Actions, and CircleCI for infrastructure as code and CI/CD.
- Electron, React, Redux, and Styled Components.
- C# and C++ for native Windows recording.
- Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android.

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**Canonical:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/fb16a2b2-e9fc-4b25-bcb5-2391ff531ea5