Senior Backend Engineer (Remote)

Empower the voices of the world @ Zencastr. If you want to push the world of podcasting into the future, come join a team who loves to live on the edge! We are a fully distributed team of smart people who are passionate about changing the world one voice at a time.

You should join us if you:

• Have significant experience with NextJS, NestJS, Node.js and good knowledge of JS fundamentals
• Have a good understanding of computer science fundamentals. You might not have gone to school for it, but you know the difference between heap and stack, different time complexities, and which patterns to use and when.
• You are ambitious. You might want to build your own company one day or have tried to tackle the toughest tech problems just for fun.
• You enjoy writing Javascript or Typescript
• You have an eye for performance. Whether thinking about the latest client-side bundling techniques, or the proper way to shard a mongo database, you want things to be fast.
• You are a team player
• You have good communication skills

What sets you apart:

• You have a passion for high-performance applications
• You have significant open-source contributions
• You want to work in a fast-growing startup. Which comes with the blood, sweat and tears of working to disrupt an established industry
• You have empathy for the end user. A spec is a conversation starter, as an advocate for the end user you always are thinking about how to best serve their needs
• You have an eye for code quality, and you strive to uphold best practices in engineering, security, and design

Why you should choose us:

• You’ll be working with world class engineers, Phd’s, and designers in a fully distributed team
• Work in an agile and fast changing environment
• Equity commensurate to your contribution in a profitable company
• Health insurance
• Unique challenges and the support and talent to solve them
• 4 weeks PTO
• Freedom to work where you please

What You’ll Do

• Design, build, and maintain scalable backend services using NextJS Node.js and TypeScript.
• Architect APIs and data pipelines that support real‑time collaboration and media processing.
• Optimize performance, reliability, and latency across distributed systems.
• Collaborate with frontend, product, and DevOps teams to deliver end‑to‑end features.
• Own projects from concept through deployment including testing, monitoring, and iteration.
• Contribute to architectural decisions around microservices, caching, and event‑driven design.
• Mentor other engineers and help evolve our engineering culture and best practices.

What You’ll Bring

• 7+ years of backend engineering experience, with at least 3+ years in Node.js and TypeScript.
• Deep understanding of API design, data modeling, and distributed systems.
• Experience with microservices, message queues, and event‑driven architectures.
• Strong grasp of performance optimization, observability, and error handling.
• Familiarity with PostgreSQL, Redis, AWS, CPG or similar cloud infrastructure.
• Comfort working in fast‑moving environments with high autonomy and ownership.
• Excellent communication skills and a collaborative mindset.

Nice to Have

• Experience with WebRTC, media encoding, or real‑time streaming.
• Background in SaaS, creator tools, or audio/video platforms.
• Contributions to open‑source Node.js or TypeScript projects

Why You’ll Love Working Here

• Work on technology that empowers creators globally.
• Join a small, high‑impact engineering team solving complex technical challenges.
• Competitive compensation, equity, and benefits.
• Remote‑first culture with flexible hours and strong collaboration.
• Opportunity to shape architecture and influence product direction.

The Right Person

You’re not just writing code you’re building systems that scale creativity. You think in terms of architecture, reliability, and user experience. You’re excited by distributed systems, real‑time data, and the idea of helping creators sound and look their best.