Backend Engineer

Key Responsibilities:

Backend Ownership

• Own the design, evolution, and reliability of mission-critical backend systems.
• Ensure scalability, performance, maintainability, and overall system health.
• Lead technical initiatives to address scaling challenges, technical debt, and architectural improvements.

System Design & Architecture

• Drive both High-Level Design (HLD) and Low-Level Design (LLD).
• Design scalable APIs, data models, service boundaries, and asynchronous workflows.
• Make sound engineering trade-offs balancing delivery speed with long-term system health.

Code Quality & Engineering Excellence

• Improve backend code quality through architecture reviews, code reviews, and refactoring.
• Simplify complex codebases and establish maintainable engineering patterns.
• Introduce best practices and guardrails to improve long-term maintainability.

Database & Performance Optimization

• Optimize PostgreSQL performance through schema design, indexing, query optimization, and tuning.
• Improve application performance using caching strategies and asynchronous processing.
• Design and operate analytics pipelines using ClickHouse or similar large-scale data systems.
• Work with messaging systems such as RabbitMQ or equivalent.

Technical Leadership

• Mentor backend engineers on architecture, debugging, and engineering best practices.
• Influence technical direction through thoughtful design discussions and strong technical reasoning.
• Raise overall engineering standards across teams.

Production Ownership

• Own production stability, incident management, and root cause analysis.
• Improve observability, monitoring, debugging, and operational excellence.
• Drive long-term reduction in production incidents and operational overhead.

Required Skills & Experience

Must Have

• 7+ years of backend engineering experience.
• Strong expertise in Node.js.
• Deep experience with PostgreSQL, including performance tuning and optimization.
• Experience designing and operating distributed backend systems.
• Strong understanding of system design, scalability, and microservices architecture.
• Experience owning backend services end-to-end—from architecture to production support.
• Strong debugging and problem-solving skills.
• Experience improving code quality, maintainability, and engineering standards.

Good to Have

• Experience with RabbitMQ or similar messaging systems.
• Experience with ClickHouse or large-scale analytics platforms.
• Experience deploying and managing applications on AWS.
• Strong knowledge of observability, monitoring, and production reliability.

What We're Looking For

Engineering Mindset

• Passion for improving existing systems rather than simply building new ones.
• Ability to simplify complex architectures and create maintainable solutions.
• Strong focus on writing clean, readable, and scalable code.
• Testing mindset with emphasis on reliability and long-term quality.
• Ability to evaluate technical trade-offs and design for future scalability.

Leadership Without Authority

• Influence technical decisions through expertise and clear reasoning.
• Challenge scope or timelines when necessary to protect system health.
• Mentor engineers and elevate overall engineering standards.
• Lead by example through hands-on technical excellence.

Why Join Vahan?

• Unlimited Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Comprehensive Medical Insurance
• Monthly Wellness Leaves
• Competitive Compensation
• Opportunity to solve large-scale engineering challenges impacting millions of users
• Ownership-driven engineering culture with significant technical autonomy
• Work alongside exceptional engineers building products that create meaningful social impact

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering with specialization in Computer science or related field
• 4-10 years of experience as a software engineer in a product development setting
• Deep experience in Python with demonstrated ability to build modern products
• Experience in designing APIs and integration patterns, implementing secure and sustainable products with a focus on quality and scalability
• Experience in FastAPI, Django, or equivalent
• Experience in data modeling and efficient usage of PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, or equivalent
• Experience with modern components like async python, pedantic, sqlalchemy, alembic, celery, google products API integration, etc. is a plus
• Understanding of CI/CD practices including code check-in policies, automated unit tests, automated code deployments, etc.
• Experience in other programming languages is a plus, especially Javascript and/or Typescript
• Experience building feature-rich and scalable web apps is a plus
• Ability to grasp new technologies and use them effectively to create industrial-strength software

What We’re Looking For:

• Strong experience in Python (4+ years).
• Hands-on experience with any database (SQL or NoSQL).
• Experience with frameworks like Flask, FastAPI, or Django.
• Knowledge of ORMs, API development, and unit testing.
• Familiarity with Git and Agile methodologies.
• Familiarity with the Kafka tool (Added Advantage)

Platform Engineering Team - where HE/SHE will be a direct impact on the entire engineering org by leading the design, build, and test of critical systems leveraged by all engineers every day. HE/SHE will manage and operate CI/CD systems, Artefact management systems, and common infra automation. HE/SHE will be partnering with engineering teams and developing scalable tools and infrastructure that help engineers develop, test, debug, and release software quickly.

Lead Software Engineer (Bangalore, Remote option available) 6+ years of experience 

Zepto (www.zeptonow.com)

Why should you look at this role?

Salary 50-65 lakh per annum

Paid leave

Sick leave

Provident Fund

What Else?

• High growth startup in quick commerce space (10 min delivery)
• Given our very high hiring bar, we offer a very competitive salary and substantial equity to create everlasting wealth for our early believers as the company grows.
• Work on real world logistics problems & benefit from the rocket ship Zepto is!

Tech Team: 40-50 (200+ in few months)

About the Employer

Zepto is a fast-growing startup that delivers products in 10 minutes through an optimised network of dark stores that we're building across the country!

Just 6 months after launching, we've raised $160 million from marquee

investors in Silicon Valley and India. Our investors include Y Combinator, Nexus Venture Partners, and many more! We’ve built out one of the best startup teams in India, with Senior Executives from Uber, Flipkart, Dream11, PhonePe, Goldman Sachs, Pepperfry, and institutions like Stanford, INSEAD, IITs, and IIMs.

The magic of Zepto is our ability to consistently deliver 2,500+ products in 10 minutes flat. It's the core of what we do, and the reason why we’ve been able to grow so fast with phenomenal customer love. Our mission is simple: to make 10-minute delivery the new normal.

Funding:

Funding Zepto has raised a total of $160M in funding over 3 rounds.

Their latest funding was raised on Dec 20, 2021 from a Series C round.

Employer Reviews:

“High Ownership, Lots of Learning, Broad Roles, Accessible Leaders”

"Alot of benefits like ZeptoJoy coupon, internet bill reimbursement and cab reimbursement is also taken care of. Overtime is paid."

Reporting structure:

Software Engineer -> Sr Software Engineer -> Lead -> EM -> AD / Director / VP -> Head of Engineering -> CTO

This role would be by and large an Individual Contributor role.

Interview Process:

1. Discussion on past experience and problem discussion based on projects done
2. Low level design
3. High level design

(One of the rounds will test scenario management via case study since it’s a managerial role) 

What You will do Everyday?

• Work very closely with the Tech Leadership and lead end-to-end development.
• Write maintainable/scalable/efficient code.
• Design and architect technical solutions for the business problems of a very large e-commerce portal.
• Work in cross-functional team, collaborating with peers during entire SDLC.
• Follow coding standards, unit-testing, code reviews etc.
• Follow release cycles and commitment to deadlines.

Your Superpowers

• 6+ years of experience in building large scale applications or products.
• A “Bring It On” attitude; bias for action; self-driven, end-to-end ownership; entrepreneurial approach; focus on operational excellence; ability to work with ambiguity.
• Strong in problem solving skills, data structures and algorithms.
• Very good understanding of one or more of RDBMS/NoSQL/Messaging/ Caching technologies.
• Excellent understanding of and coding skills in following technologies: Java
• B Tech/BE in Computer Science or equivalent from a reputed institution.

CLICK HERE TO APPLY: https://forms.gle/v8P54gfPvUZGeJ3u6">https://forms.gle/v8P54gfPvUZGeJ3u6

• Strong first principles
• Hustle! We're young, lean, and in our early days. You'd have to set up your own shop, work with design customers to find generalizable use cases, and build them out.
• Ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams to build and ship new features
• At least 2-6 years of experience with primary exp in Python
• Must have skills - Flask / Django, RESTful Web Services, Database SQL / NoSQL
• The preferred Location is Bangalore but is also flexible with PAN India.
• Would require candidates from Tier 1 & 2 Companies or Tier 1 & 2 Colleges preferably.
• Proficient experience of back-end programming language - Python
• The preferred Location is Bangalore but is also flexible with PAN India.
• Would require candidates from Tier 1 & 2 Companies or Tier 1 & 2 Colleges preferably.