Senior Backend Engineer (Contractor)

Senior Backend Engineer (Contractor)

Location: Remote (LATAM only)

Engagement: Contractor

Experience: Senior (5+ years)

Timezone: Must overlap with US working hours

Role Summary

We are hiring a Senior Backend Engineer (Contractor) to design, build, and evolve the core backend services that power Hauler Hero’s platform. This is a 100% hands-on senior IC role, focused on building scalable, reliable, and maintainable systems used daily by waste hauling companies across North America.

You will work closely with Product, Frontend, and Platform engineers to ship features, improve system robustness, and continuously refactor existing services as the platform scales. This role requires strong technical judgment, comfort with ambiguity, and clear communication in a remote environment.

AI-First Backend Engineering

We are intentionally building an AI-assisted engineering organization. AI tools are part of the daily workflow, not optional.

What this means in practice:

• Daily use of tools such as Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, and GitHub Copilot

• AI-assisted implementation of Spring Boot services, APIs, database migrations, and business logic

• AI-assisted test generation, refactoring suggestions, and code review support

• AI-assisted log analysis, debugging, and issue investigation

You remain accountable for reviewing, validating, and owning everything AI produces. Speed matters, but correctness, performance, and maintainability matter more.

This role is not a fit for engineers who are resistant to AI-assisted development or who rely on AI output without understanding the underlying system.

Key Responsibilities

Core Backend Development

• Design, build, and maintain robust backend service layers

• Write clean, testable, high-performance code in Java and/or Kotlin using Spring Boot

• Design and implement APIs that scale with real production workloads

• Refactor and extend existing services to improve reliability and maintainability

• Create reusable components and patterns that improve team velocity

Data & Performance

• Design and optimize relational schemas in PostgreSQL

• Write and tune performant SQL queries for large data volumes

• Validate that database access patterns scale under load

• Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks across services

Collaboration & Delivery

• Work as part of a cross-functional Agile/Scrum team

• Participate in design reviews, code reviews, and architectural discussions

• Collaborate with frontend and product teams on feature development

• Debug and resolve production issues as they arise

• Contribute to improving engineering processes and practices

Mentorship & Culture

• Mentor engineers through code reviews and technical discussions

• Contribute to a culture of learning, iteration, and constructive feedback

• Share context proactively to avoid knowledge silos

Required Qualifications

Experience

• 5+ years building production backend systems

• Experience designing and operating systems with distributed data and meaningful scale

• Experience working in Agile/Scrum environments

• Strong Git/GitHub workflow experience

Core Technologies

• Strong proficiency with Spring Boot (Java and/or Kotlin)

• Deep experience with relational databases, especially PostgreSQL

• Experience building and maintaining production APIs

• Experience refactoring toward or within microservice architectures

Skills

• Ability to translate product requirements into technical solutions

• Strong problem-decomposition and debugging skills

• Solid computer science fundamentals and engineering judgment

• Clear written and verbal communication skills

Nice to Have

• Experience with Node.js or React

• Messaging and communication platforms (SendGrid, Twilio)

• Event-driven architectures

• Geospatial or location-based systems

• Payments or financial integrations

• Background in logistics, fintech, or B2B SaaS

Our Tech Stack

• Backend: Java, Kotlin, Spring Boot, PostgreSQL

• Cloud: Google Cloud Platform (GKE, Cloud Run, Cloud SQL)

• Caching: Redis, Firestore

• Frontend: React

• CI/CD: Cloud Build, GitHub Actions

• Monitoring: New Relic, Google Operations

What We Look For

Ownership & Judgment

• You take problems through to resolution

• You balance pragmatism with quality

• You identify and eliminate single points of failure

Communication

• Clear, proactive written communication in English

• Comfort working async across time zones

• Willingness to surface risks and tradeoffs early

Mindset

• Curious, growth-oriented, and adaptable

• Comfortable with ambiguity and iteration

• Willing to refactor continuously as systems evolve

What Success Looks Like

• Backend services are reliable, scalable, and maintainable

• Features ship consistently with minimal rework

• Production issues are diagnosable and resolved quickly

• Database and API performance scales with usage

• Strong trust from frontend, product, and platform teams

Contractor & Location Notes

• This is a contractor role, not full-time employment

• Candidates must be based in LATAM

• Senior-level ownership and reliability are expected

• Consistent overlap with US working hours is required