Backend Engineer (Freelance)

Make • Dallas, TX

4d • Remote

About The Position

Make is hiring a freelance Backend Engineer for a short-term contract. The role is remote and requires full-time availability through the end of the contract, including at least 2–3 hours of daily overlap with Central Time for meetings. The engineer will join an AI-first team building and maintaining large-scale software and backend services. The position calls for independent ownership, proactive communication, and working effectively in a remote-first, asynchronous environment.

Requirements

• An AI-first mindset.
• Hands-on experience using Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex.
• Hands-on experience building at least one large-scale system from scratch.
• More than 5 years of backend experience.
• More than 2 years of Node.js experience.
• Excellent communication skills and comfort working asynchronously in a remote environment.
• A proactive, ownership-driven mindset, including raising problems early and helping solve them.
• Comfort independently managing priorities and complexity in a 100% operational role.
• Availability for meetings in Central Time, with at least 2–3 hours of daily overlap.
• Full-time availability through the end of the contract.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain backend services using TypeScript and Node.js.
• Integrate backend functionality with third-party APIs and external data services.
• Write clean, readable, well-tested code.
• Use AI tools daily to support development, debugging, refactoring, and documentation while maintaining quality.
• Communicate progress, blockers, and risks proactively with other engineers in a remote-first environment.
• Identify bugs, performance bottlenecks, and architectural risks early, and take ownership of solutions.
• Manage priorities and complexity independently in a 100% operational role.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed