Lead Backend Engineer

Title: Lead Backend Engineer
Duration: Contract to hire
Location: Reston, VA 100% Remote

Ideal Candidate Profile:

Seeking a Lead Backend Engineer with good experience designing and delivering scalable, cloud-native applications on AWS, combined with proven leadership in mentoring engineering teams and driving technical excellence. Expert in Node.js (TypeScript), serverless architectures, APIs, and modern database technologies, with hands-on experience building Generative AI solutions such as RAG applications and LLM-powered services. Adept at leading end-to-end software development in Agile environments, establishing engineering best practices, and ensuring high standards for security, performance, observability, and maintainability. innovation.Candidate should have both leadership and hands-on development skills.

Job Duties & Responsibilities
Design and Development (60%)

• Design and deliver high-quality software that is scalable, secure, and reusable—leveraging modern technologies, proven design patterns, and cloud-native practices to power BigFuture''s core tools.
• Collaborate with product owners, architects, and stakeholders to uphold the highest engineering standards and translate big ideas into impactful, student-facing solutions.
• Break down new product capabilities into actionable, verifiable technical changes that move quickly from concept to reality.
• Design and implement solutions to allow rapid testing of innovative concepts using the latest technologies, typically React web apps
• Create sharable documentation, both technical and non-technical
• Exercise discretion in prototyping: investing time to make sure the most important things work well, and working with the team to mock or minimize less important features
• Maintain clean code and strong engineering standards such that when prototypes are greenlit for further development, the project is easy to build upon
• Continuously develop the skills required to work with this rapidly developing technology

Team Operations & Success (30%)

• Participate in, or lead Agile SCRUM ceremonies (Sprint Planning, Grooming, Daily SCRUM, Demo) by contributing to team deliverables and driving alignment, focus, and momentum across sprints.
• Elevate team performance by giving and receiving thoughtful code reviews, mentoring peers, and helping solve complex technical challenges.
• Assist in resolving production issues with urgency and precision, ensuring a smooth and reliable user experience.
• Model discipline in adhering to development standards, security practices, and CI/CD principles while helping the team move fast without compromising quality.
• Continuously grow your skills and embrace a poly-skilled environment where everyone contributes beyond their specialty.
• Serve as an organizational Subject Matter Expert on implementing Generative AI applications
• Work with our Enterprise Architecture team to review and/or establish implementation patterns involving Generative AI tools
• Advise on, and where feasible, create tools and infrastructure that will enable teams to safely deploy Generative AI tools

Learning & Sharing (10%)

• Keep abreast of developments in GenAI capabilities and implementations
• Share knowledge of new developments with the team via chats, meetings, and presentations when appropriate
• Serve as an advisor to internal teams developing staff education around Generative AI

Required Skills & Experience

• 7+ years of professional experience designing, building, testing, and managing scalable web applications in AWS-hosted environments
• 3+ years'' experience building back-end applications using Node(with TypeScript)
• Experience with relational and NoSQL databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redshift, DynamoDB)
• Experience building observability for your products: Set up CloudWatch, X-Ray, for logging, metrics, and alerts.
• Hands-on experience implementing Generative AI applications (e.g., RAG chatbots, model fine-tuning, or other LLM-powered tools)
• Enthusiasm for learning new technologies, especially in the fast-moving GenAI space
• Strong knowledge and hands-on experience with back-end technologies such as Node.js
• Experience with asynchronous programming and event-driven messaging patterns
• Strong knowledge of AWS services (e.g., Lambda, SNS, SQS, S3, Step Functions, IAM, KMS, API Gateway, CloudWatch, DynamoDB)
• Experience working in Agile/Scrum environments
• Proven ability to mentor and coach less experienced teammates in new technologies
• Strong analytical thinking, structured problem-solving, and practical decision-making skills
• Effective communication and documentation skills
• Proficiency in reviewing and improving code structure and architecture for testability, maintainability, and scalability, with hands-on experience in JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Node.js, Next.js, APIs, and AWS Serverless technologies (Lambdas, DynamoDB, S3, CloudWatch, etc.).
• Leadership in the end-to-end design and implementation of user interfaces, from architectural planning and component strategy through to polished execution, including accessibility, performance optimization, and mentoring peers on building intuitive, scalable, and user-centric front-end solutions.
• Strong problem-solving skills, working collaboratively with team members to identify and resolve issues, and partnering with Product Owners to prioritize backlog.
• Proven ability to pitch new ideas and implement improved systems and processes, delivering excellent results.
• Effective communicator and team lead, able to provide actionable feedback, mentor team members, and participate in interviews to evaluate engineering talent.
• Bachelor''s degree in computer science, or related engineering fields preferred