Senior Backend Engineer

Phia • New York, NY

14d

About The Position

As a Senior Backend Engineer, you’ll design, build, and scale core backend systems that power high-traffic consumer products and internal platforms. You’ll own foundational services and APIs, work on high-throughput distributed systems, and partner closely with product, ML, and engineering teams to deliver reliable, low-latency experiences at scale.
About Phia
Phia has raised $43M from Notable Capital, Khosla Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins to build the AI alignment layer for commerce. In under a year, Phia’s consumer shopping agent has surpassed one million users and partnered with 6,200+ retail brands, representing billions in annual gross merchandise volume. Each month, Phia drives millions of dollars in sales for brands and has achieved 11× revenue growth since launch.
In an era where AI vertical agents are reshaping every industry, commerce is on the verge of a complete transformation. Phia is reinventing shopping from a fragmented, impersonal experience into one that feels intelligent, trusted, and built around each user’s intent. This foundation of trust is our wedge to become the end-to-end shopping destination for the next generation of buyers.
Phia is a lean, high-ownership team building at startup speed. If you want to ship at high velocity and solve complex problems in consumer AI and commerce, this is the place to do it.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience building and operating backend systems in production
• Strong experience with APIs, databases, and distributed systems
• Proficiency in at least one backend language and modern backend frameworks
• Experience designing systems for scale, performance, and reliability
• Strong ownership mindset and ability to work in fast-moving environments
• Clear communicator who collaborates well across functions

Responsibilities

• Design and build scalable backend services, APIs, and shared platform components
• Own system architecture, performance, and reliability for core backend systems
• Partner with product and ML teams to support data- and model-driven workflows
• Improve observability, monitoring, and operational best practices
• Drive technical decisions and contribute to long-term platform strategy
• Raise the quality bar through code reviews, design discussions, and mentorship

What This Job Offers

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