Backend Engineer

Our Mission

To make video as accessible to machines as text and voice are today.

At lookup, we believe the world's most valuable asset is trapped. Video is everywhere, but it's unsearchable—a black box of insight that no one can open or atleast open affordably. We’re changing that. We're building the search engine for the visual world, so anyone can find or do anything with video just by asking.

Text is queryable. Voice is transcribed. Video, the largest and richest data source of all, is still a black box. A computer can't understand it, and so its value remains trapped.

Our mission at lookup is to fix this.

About the Role

We are looking for founding Backend Engineers to build a highly performant, reliable, and scalable API platform that makes enterprise video knowledge readily available for video search, summarization, and natural‑language Q&A. You will partner closely with our ML team working on vision‑language models to productionize research and deliver fast, trustworthy APIs for customers.

Examples of technical challenges you will work on include: distributed video storage, a unified application framework and data model for indexing large video libraries, low‑latency clip retrieval, vector search at scale, and end‑to‑end build, test, deploy, and observability in cloud environments.

What You’ll Do:

• Design and build robust backend services and APIs (REST, gRPC) for vector search, video summarization, and video Q&A.
• Own API performance and reliability, including low‑latency retrieval, pagination, rate limiting, and backwards‑compatible versioning.
• Design schemas and tune queries in Postgres, and integrate with unstructured storage.
• Implement observability across metrics, logs, and traces. Set error budgets and SLOs.
• Write clear design docs and ship high‑quality, well‑tested code.
• Collaborate with ML engineers to integrate and productionize VLMs and retrieval pipelines.
• Take ownership of architecture from inception to production launch.

Who You Are:

• 3+ years of professional experience in backend development.
• Proven experience building and scaling polished WebSocket, gRPC, and REST APIs.
• Exposure to distributed systems and container orchestration (Docker and Kubernetes).
• Hands‑on experience with AWS.
• Strong knowledge of SQL (Postgres) and NoSQL (e.g., Cassandra), including schema design, query optimization, and scaling.
• Familiarity with our stack is a plus, but not mandatory: Python (FastAPI), Celery, Kafka, Postgres, Redis, Weaviate, React.
• Ability to diagnose complex issues, identify root causes, and implement effective fixes.
• Comfortable working in a fast‑paced startup environment.

Nice to have:

• Hands-on work with LLM agents, vector embeddings, or RAG applications.
• Building video streaming pipelines and storage systems at scale (FFmpeg, RTSP, WebRTC).
• Proficiency with modern frontend frameworks (React, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS) and responsive UI design.

Location & Culture

• Full-time, in-office role in Bangalore (we’re building fast and hands-on).
• Must be comfortable with a high-paced environment and collaboration across PST time zones for our US customers and investors.
• Expect startup speed — daily founder syncs, rapid design-to-prototype cycles, and a culture of deep ownership.

Why You’ll Love This Role

• Work on the frontier of video understanding and real-world AI — products that can redefine trust and automation.
• Build core APIs that make video queryable and power real customer use.
• Own systems end to end: performance, reliability, and developer experience.
• Work closely with founders and collaborate in person in Bangalore.
• Competitive salary with meaningful early equity.

Are you passionate about backend development and building scalable applications? Join our growing team!

Technical Skills:

• Extensive experience in programming/scripting languages and frameworks in at least two Node.js, Java Springboot, and Python.
• Understanding of architectural patterns like Flux and MVC is a desirable
• Work experience in REST API service, Socket connections, and mechanisms to handle real-time async data is important.
• Strong knowledge in OOPS, GIT, SQL/nonSQL DB (such as Elastic DB, Mongo DB, MySQL), Design Patterns
• Preferred to have experience with microservices, API gateway, AAA service
• Good knowledge of coding standards, design patterns, unit testing frameworks, TDD, CI/CD practices.

Must have previous experience in leading a team-

• Experience with RESTful web services, CSS, and HTML5 is desirable-
• Experience with designing and building APIs with REST/Microservices
• Good to know about AWS Lambda & supporting configuration knowledge. Knowledge of any of the serverless frameworks like Serverless, AWS SAM would be an advantage.-
• Good to know of API Gateway and CloudFront.-

👉 Required Skills:

• Strong experience with Node.js
• Hands-on expertise in Payment Gateway Integration
• Proficient in MySQL Database Management
• Knowledge of Socket Programming is a big plus!

• Developing and maintaining all server-side network components.
• Ensuring optimal performance of the central database and responsiveness to front-end requests.
• Collaborating with front-end developers on the integration of elements.
• Designing customer-facing UI and back-end services for various business processes.
• Developing high-performance applications by writing testable, reusable, and efficient code.
• Implementing effective security protocols, data protection measures, and storage solutions.
• Running diagnostic tests, repairing defects, and providing technical support.
• Documenting Node.js processes, including database schemas, as well as preparing reports.
• Recommending and implementing improvements to processes and technologies.
• Keeping informed of advancements in the field of Node.js development.

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, information science, or similar.
• At least two years' experience as a Node.js developer.
• Extensive knowledge of JavaScript, web stacks, libraries, and frameworks.
• Knowledge of front-end technologies such as HTML5 and CSS3.
• Superb interpersonal, communication, and collaboration skills.
• Exceptional analytical and problem-solving aptitude.
• Great organizational and time management skills.
• Availability to resolve urgent web application issues outside of business hours.

• 5+ years of object-oriented software development of web applications
• 5+ years of C# in a .NET environment
• Preferable Experience in Cloud Technologies (AWS, AZURE)
• Experience with MS SQL stored procedures, database design and optimization
• Experience developing and utilizing web services
• Experience with high volume consumer oriented web sites
• Experience working in an Agile Scrum environment
• Experience with formal test procedures, release management
• Preferable Travel industry experience preferred, especially programming associated with GDS’s - SABRE, Farelogix, and Travelport
• Ability to distill complex business needs into functional requirements
• Excellent follow-up, verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent problem solving skills and an ability to make good decisions
• Team player with a professional attitude
• Ability to manage multiple tasks and maintain tight schedules
• Ability to work effectively with a geographically dispersed team in India

Strategic and Development Responsibilities

• Ability to "think outside the box"
• Ability to provide accurate and timely project estimates.

Pluses:

• Experience with Angular JS frameworks and Mobile Development.
• Experience with developing machine learning algorithms.
• Experience on projects that required localization/globalization
• Experience with MS SQL Reporting Services
• Knowledge of web farm configuration and best practices

Software Tools/Languages

Required:        MS Visual Studio, MS SQL Server Management Studio, IIS, AWS

C#, Web Services, MS SQL (stored procedures), Jenkins, DevOps Tools.

Education