Senior Backend Engineer

Role Description

As a Senior Backend Engineer, you will be reporting to the Vice President of Engineering and would be a key member of Real’s R&D team. You will operate in an AI-first environment leveraging tools like Claude Code to translate product ideas into production-ready systems. You will help lead the overall technical vision for all things back-end, implementing features, squashing bugs, and making improvements across our Java Spring Microservices. You would also drive adoption of AI-assisted development practices within the backend engineering team. If you are self-motivated and a tech expert to join a results-oriented team, we encourage you to join us.

This role is not just about writing code; it’s about:

• Designing scalable systems
• Validating and owning AI-assisted code
• Driving technical excellence across the team

What You’ll Do:

• Collaborate with other engineers through pairing sessions, code reviews, and knowledge sharing in our weekly Friday Dev Chats.
• Mentor and lead junior engineers in software engineering methodology, design, and best practices.
• Work with the product team and feature owners to understand requirements and see them through to execution and deployment.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience with Java 17+ (we are migrating toward Java 21), Spring Boot 3.x, JPA/Hibernate 6, and SQL relational databases.
• Comfortable writing unit and integration tests and maintaining strong code coverage.
• Experience designing event-driven microservices and applying patterns such as Domain-Driven Design (DDD), hexagonal (ports & adapters) architecture, and CQRS.
• In-depth knowledge of relational databases, including indices, connection pools, transactions (ACID), and implications of schema designs on performance.
• Experience with NoSQL databases, understanding their advantages and disadvantages, and knowing when to prefer one over a relational database.
• Opinionated in the direction that backend software development is going and will give recommendations and take the initiative for the long-term health of the project.
• Keen eye for where to refactor and when, using standard design principles and patterns.
• Welcoming to other engineers, with a collaborative attitude, excited to both learn and teach new knowledge.
• Enjoy working with a remote team that spans many different time zones and locations.
• Comfortable in an agile, fast-paced startup environment where you work closely with product to understand how your work will fit into the larger project while acting on limited information.

Requirements

• Hands-on experience with AI coding assistants such as Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex (or similar) in real development workflows.
• Familiarity with agentic / CLI-based AI workflows and Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations that connect AI tools to internal systems (e.g., GitHub, Datadog, issue tracking, SonarQube).
• Experience applying AI to accelerate code review, test generation, and documentation, not just code completion.
• Ability to critically evaluate generated code; identify incorrect or suboptimal outputs; refactor AI-generated code for production readiness.
• Strong judgment on when to use AI vs manual implementation; trade-offs between speed and correctness; validating and owning AI-assisted code before it ships to production.

Education and Experience

• BA/BS degree and 8+ years of related experience; or any combination of education and experience, which would provide an equivalent background.
• Must have experience in Spring/Spring Boot, Hibernate, and Relational Databases.
• A real estate background with transferable skills would be an asset.
• Demonstrated Project Coordination/Management skills.

How We Work: Our Operating Principles

• Be Agent Obsessed: We design every decision around creating value for our agents and their clients.
• Move Fast with Purpose: We act with urgency, clarity, and focus—without compromising our standards.
• Own Your Outcome: Effort matters, but results matter more. We adapt, learn, and improve.
• Be Bold; Challenge Often: We challenge assumptions, rethink “the usual,” and push for smarter, simpler solutions.
• Win Together: We set high standards, collaborate deeply, and celebrate shared success.

Additional Details

• Location Requirements: Candidates must be based in the United States to be considered.
• Physical Requirements: Ability to sit for long periods of time.