Senior Backend Engineer

Positions are full-time and onsite (in-person) at our office in beautiful Fort Walton Beach, Florida. What will you do? As a TalkingParents Senior Backend Engineer, you will build and ship production features using AI-assisted development workflows daily. You’ll architect solutions and steer AI-driven development workflows, ensuring generated code meets production standards while personally owning the critical paths, edge cases, and system-defining logic. If you enjoy shipping fast, thinking clearly about system design, writing code that matters, and being part of a team that treats you like family, this is the role for you. How you'll make an impact: TalkingParents is looking for a senior engineer who is excited about what AI-assisted development actually looks like in production - not demos, not toy projects, but real, production-deployed, multi-service .NET systems. You'll own backend services end-to-end, from database schema through API controllers, working with AI agents that multiply your output while you maintain quality and architectural intent. Main Responsibilities Design, build, and maintain C#/.NET backend services - APIs, domain logic, Azure Functions, and data access layers Work within an AI-assisted development workflow - reviewing AI-generated code, guiding agent output, writing prompts that produce correct implementations, and knowing when to code by hand Own features from technical design through deployment - decompose requirements into implementation tasks, write acceptance criteria, and drive work to completion Write and maintain unit tests (MSTest + Moq) using TDD practices Design and optimize SQL Server schemas and queries (T-SQL, Dapper, SqlKata) Build and maintain Azure Functions for background queue processing, time-triggered tasks, and processing incoming web hooks Collaborate with web, mobile, and DevOps engineers to ship cohesive features Participate in code review - both reviewing AI-generated PRs and peer-reviewing human work Troubleshoot production issues across service boundaries using Application Insights and Raygun Contribute to architectural decisions and help evolve the platform's backend patterns Skills and Qualifications Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience 5+ years of professional experience building backend services in C# / .NET Strong hands-on experience with ASP.NET Core Web APIs - controllers, middleware, dependency injection (Autofac preferred) Solid T-SQL skills and experience with database design, query optimization, and data access patterns (Dapper, Entity Framework, or similar ORMs) Experience with Microsoft Azure services - App Services, Azure Functions, Azure SQL, Storage Queues, Service Bus, Key Vault Practiced TDD workflow - you write tests before implementation, not after Experience with Git workflows - branching strategies, pull requests, conventional commits, CI checks Comfortable working with AI coding tools (GitHub Copilot, multi-agent systems, or similar) - you don't need to be an expert, but you should be curious and unafraid Strong problem-solving instincts - you can trace a bug across service boundaries without hand-holding Clear written and verbal communication - you'll write technical specs, review AI output, and explain decisions to teammates Self-directed with good judgment about when to ask questions vs. when to make a call Bonus Skills Experience with Blazor or other server-side rendered .NET UI frameworks Familiarity with event-driven architectures - queues, pub/sub, background job processing Experience with Cosmos DB or other NoSQL databases alongside relational stores Prior use of AI-assisted development workflows - prompt engineering, agent orchestration, or AI code review Experience with IdentityServer or OAuth2/OpenID Connect implementations Performance profiling and optimization at scale Experience mentoring junior engineers *Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the US and not require sponsorship now or in the future. Work authorization must be valid for at least the next three years. Ready to Join Us? If you are passionate about Software Engineering, thrive in a dynamic environment, and are excited to bring innovative ideas to life, we encourage you to apply today! NOTE TO APPLICANTS: Salary or wages listed on Indeed.com or TheLadders.com are not based on actual data for this job listing. The salary ranges any third party provides with listings on their websites are based on their own salary calculators and are not accurate for the Northwest Florida area. *Candidate(s) who are offered a position will be required to successfully pass a pre-employment background check and drug screening. *TalkingParents is an Equal Opportunity Employer *No outsourcing or recruiting firms, please. #J-18808-Ljbffr