Senior Backend Engineer

Role Description

We are hiring a Senior Back End Engineer to help architect and scale the core infrastructure powering Volt's messaging platform. This role is focused on building reliable, high-throughput systems that support real-time messaging operations, onboarding workflows, compliance automation, routing intelligence, and operational visibility across providers and carriers.

You will work closely with Engineering leadership, Product, Customer Operations, and Infrastructure teams to improve scalability, reliability, observability, automation, and platform performance. This is not a narrow feature-delivery role. We are looking for a senior-level builder who can think architecturally, operate independently, and contribute to long-term platform direction while still moving quickly in a startup environment.

Equally important: this is a team role. Our engineering group is small, tight-knit, and genuinely collaborative. We cover for each other, give candid feedback without ego, and take real pride in raising the collective quality of the work. We're looking for someone who strengthens that culture, not someone who operates on an island.

What You'll Do

• Design, build, and maintain scalable back-end systems and APIs
• Improve platform reliability, performance, observability, and operational efficiency
• Build systems that support high-volume messaging throughput and operational workflows
• Contribute to distributed systems architecture and scalability planning
• Improve automation across onboarding, compliance, routing, and operational tooling
• Collaborate with Product and Operations teams to translate complex workflows into scalable systems
• Help improve deployment reliability, infrastructure consistency, and engineering standards
• Participate in architecture reviews, technical planning, and systems design discussions
• Actively support peers through code review, knowledge sharing, and filling gaps — not just owning your own surface area
• Mentor engineers and contribute to technical best practices across the team
• Leverage AI tooling to accelerate development, troubleshooting, debugging, automation, and documentation workflows
• Contribute to long-term platform modernization and scalability initiatives

AI Expectations for This Role

AI is not an add-on at Volt — it's woven into how we build. We're looking for an engineer who has genuinely made the transition from traditional development practices to AI-augmented workflows, not just someone who occasionally uses Copilot. Ideally you've been part of a team or organization that successfully navigated that shift, and you can bring that experience — the patterns, the pitfalls, and the discipline — with you.

• Systematic use of agentic coding workflows, not just ad hoc AI assistance
• AI-assisted debugging and root-cause analysis
• Infrastructure and architecture analysis with AI tooling
• Automated documentation and workflow generation
• AI-supported code review and refactoring
• Intelligent monitoring and anomaly analysis
• Faster prototyping and systems planning
• Helping the broader team level up its own AI practices over time

What We're Looking For

• Strong experience building and scaling back-end systems in production environments
• Experience designing APIs and distributed systems
• Strong understanding of system performance, scalability, and reliability
• Experience with cloud infrastructure and event-driven architectures
• Strong troubleshooting and systems-thinking mindset
• Experience with observability, monitoring, and operational tooling
• Ability to operate independently and drive technical initiatives — while actively supporting and collaborating with a small, high-trust team
• A collaborative, low-ego approach to peer feedback and shared ownership of quality
• Comfortable working in fast-moving startup environments
• Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills
• Real, hands-on experience with AI-enabled engineering workflows and agentic coding practices — especially in an environment that has made the transition from traditional development

Nice to Have

• Experience with messaging, telecom, CPaaS, or high-throughput infrastructure
• Experience with PostgreSQL, Redis, Kafka, SQS, or similar technologies
• Familiarity with compliance-heavy or workflow-heavy systems
• Experience with DevOps or infrastructure automation
• Experience mentoring engineers or leading technical initiatives
• Deep familiarity with agentic tooling and AI-assisted engineering at the team or org level
• Experience building internal operational platforms or automation systems

How We Work

• Remote-first team with high ownership and accountability
• Small, highly collaborative environment — everyone fills in, no one operates on an island
• Fast iteration cycles and direct access to leadership
• Strong builder culture with low ego and a genuine commitment to peer feedback
• Bias toward action, clarity, and operational excellence
• AI-forward engineering mindset, actively evolving our practices

Why Volt

• Opportunity to help architect and scale a rapidly growing messaging platform
• High-impact role with influence across infrastructure and product direction
• Ability to solve complex operational and scalability challenges
• Work closely with experienced founders and technical leadership
• Help build the operational backbone for modern messaging infrastructure
• Join a team that genuinely invests in each other and works hard to get better together

Volt Labs Inc · Remote (U.S. required) · $140,000–$165,000