Senior Software Engineer, Backend
About The Position
Wag! Group Co. is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to join their backend engineering team. This role involves enhancing the core backend API, supporting cloud infrastructure, and associated backend services. The ideal candidate will thrive in a small, fast-paced team environment, be comfortable working across the stack, and have demonstrated experience building workflows and products with AI tools. This position is full-time and requires 5x a week in-person presence at their downtown Miami office. Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. and this position is not eligible for visa sponsorship.
Requirements
- Significant experience building and operating scalable backend systems in production.
- Demonstrated experience building software with AI coding agents such as Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex.
- Proficiency in PHP, ideally Laravel, and working proficiency in Python.
- Experience with event-driven and queue-based architectures, particularly AWS SQS.
- Experience running containerized services in production, ideally on ECS.
- Ability to work in-person 5x a week in our downtown Miami office.
Nice To Haves
- Familiarity with secrets management in tools such as HashiCorp Vault or AWS Parameter Store.
- Experience with large-scale static analysis and automated refactoring, such as PHPStan, Rector, or similar.
- Proficiency in maintaining and deploying systems with tools such as Terraform, Docker, and GitLab CI/CD.
- Strong knowledge of database design and performance optimization, especially MySQL and Redis.
- Experience integrating LLMs into production software, including prompt design, evaluation, and handling non-deterministic output safely.
- A pragmatic, agnostic coding approach with a strong understanding of when to apply certain design patterns, drawn from extensive experience with large projects.
- Understanding of secure design principles for backend systems.
- Solid understanding of site reliability engineering, monitoring, and incident management.
- Excellent communication skills with the ability to work effectively across a distributed team.
Responsibilities
- Take ownership of the backend platform, from the client-facing API schema to the server and database infrastructure in AWS.
- Contribute to architectural and design decisions, and explain the tradeoffs.
- Break down features into releasable components, estimate release schedules, and collaborate with the team.
- Design and implement core products within our PHP and Laravel API, working from an OpenAPI specification in a domain-driven, service and repository architecture.
- Build and enhance internal backend systems in Python, including our AWS Lambda services, and collaborate with other business units.
- Support the production infrastructure by implementing and maintaining AWS services using Terraform, including ECS, Lambda, API Gateway, SQS, Parameter Store, CloudWatch, and IAM.
- Participate in production monitoring and incident response, designing the necessary tools and processes.
- Integrate AI-powered solutions directly into the product.
- Build and improve the agent workflows, context, and tooling that let the team develop effectively with AI in a large codebase.
Benefits
- Competitive Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
- Complimentary parking on-site at our downtown Miami office
- Catered breakfast and lunch daily
- Monthly Wellness Stipend
- Credits for both Wag! and maxbone
- Life Insurance and Short- and Long-term Disability with Guardian
- 401(k) Retirement Plan with Empower and employer match
- 11 company-paid holidays each year
- Flexible (no set limit) discretionary paid time off
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
No Education Listed
