Senior Software Engineer, Backend

Wag Walking • Miami, FL

1d • Onsite

About The Position

Wag! Group Co. is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to join their backend engineering team. This role involves developing products for millions of pets and their owners by enhancing the core backend API and supporting cloud infrastructure. The ideal candidate will thrive in a small, fast-paced team, be comfortable working across the stack, and have demonstrated experience building workflows and products with AI tools. This is a full-time, in-person position in their downtown Miami office, requiring legal authorization to work in the U.S. without future 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. Be prepared to discuss specifics: features you shipped with agent assistance, the workflows or tooling you built to make agents effective on a large codebase, and where you decided not to rely on them.
• 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, and 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 as defined by plan
• 11 company-paid holidays each year
• Flexible (no set limit) discretionary paid time off in accordance with the vacation policy outlined in our handbook and subject to your manager’s approval
• Paid parental leave, up to 8 weeks for non-birthing parents and 14-16 weeks for birthing parents

What This Job Offers

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