Database Administrator (PostgreSQL)

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.

Primary Skills: Database Systems (SQL), Python Flask/Fast API/Django frameworks specifically
Requirements:

• Highly proficient in fundamentals of Python web development frameworks like Flask, Django and Fast API
• Demonstrated experience in developing APIs using Python frameworks
• Should have deep knowledge in PostgreSQL, MS SQL Server and other SQL based Databases

As an Associate Software Engineer, you will have the opportunity to collaborate on the creation and maintenance of scalable, high-quality software as we grow. You'll work closely with the CTO and quickly gain skills and responsibilities as the team and the technical requirements grow.

Primary Responsibilities

• Develop RESTful APIs leveraging Django classes, ORM and Postgres Database
• Develop solutions that meet business objectives while leveraging industry best practices
• Write high-quality source code to program complete applications within deadlines
• Troubleshoot and debug applications

Technical Competencies

• Expertise with Python language
• Experience with Django: maintaining APIs
• Familiarity using Git, code repositories, branching and merging strategies
• Ability to break down complex concepts, tasks, or problems into more simple, understandable language and action plans
• Excellent communication skills, and attention to detail
• Good Documentation skills

Perks

• Work from home
• Flexible work schedule
• Flexible standup meetings

Interview Process

• Two technical rounds with Senior Developer and CTO
• Cultural Fit interview with Project Manager

Please do not apply if you don't have professional Django work experience.

Your primary focus will be the development of all server-side logic, definition and maintenance of the central database, and ensuring high performance and responsiveness to requests from the front-end. You will also be responsible for integrating the front-end elements built by your co-workers into the application. Therefore, a basic understanding of front-end technologies is necessary as well.

• Integration of user-facing elements developed by front-end developers with server side logic
• Writing reusable, testable, and efficient code
• Design and implementation of low-latency, high-availability, and performant applications
• Implementation of security and data protection

• Strong proficiency with JavaScript & OOPS
• Knowledge of Node.js and frameworks available for it 
• Understanding the nature of asynchronous programming and its quirks and workarounds
• Good understanding of server-side CSS preprocessors 
• Basic understanding of front-end technologies, such as HTML5, and CSS3
• Understanding accessibility and security compliance
• User authentication and authorization between multiple systems, servers, and environments
• Creating database schemas that represent and support business processes
• Implementing automated testing platforms and unit tests
• Proficient understanding of code versioning tools, such as Git
• Knowledge of AWS will be preferable

We’re looking for a Ruby on Rails Software Engineer/Shopify App Developer who has experience working with the Shopify platform and is able to work on a Shopify app.

Your Daily Challenges

When we welcome you aboard we’ll introduce you to your Team, which consists of a front-end developer, a Shopify App Marketer who grew 2 apps to million dollar annual revenue, and a product manager.

These are the people you’ll work closely with on Product development day-to-day. Once you get settled in and learn more about the team, your day to day activities will look something like this:

1. Own the end-to-end development cycle for the Shopify app you’ll be working on.
2. Coordinate with fellow developers to get things done on time. 
3. Implement high quality code in an agile, test driven development environment
4. Review exception reports to identify and fix bugs
5. Development of new apps and features
6. Maintenance of existing features
7. Collaboration with cross-functional teams
8. Contributions of ideas to improve the product

Your Experience

1. 3-5 years of experience with Ruby on Rails
2. Experience with Shopify app development
3. Familiar with Sidekiq, PostgreSQL
4. Good understanding of HTML and CSS (positioning and styling)
5. Excellent communication skills
6. Takes pride in writing clean, organized, efficient code
7. An eye for detail
8. Experience with vanilla JavaScript and React a plus
9. Experience working in an entrepreneurial/startup environment

Your Compensation

1. The compensation range for this role is INR 14-18 LPA (~25K USD) + up to 5% equity.
2. The compensation varies with experience and qualifications. 
3. This is a full-time remote/work from home position.

Thanks for the time you took to read about this opportunity.

We are looking for a highly capable Node.js developer to optimize our web-based application performance. You will be collaborating with our front-end application developers, designing back-end components, and integrating data storage and protection solutions.

To ensure success as a Node.js developer, you should possess extensive knowledge of Node.Js based services and experience in a similar role. An accomplished Node.js developer will be someone whose expertise results in the stable, fast, and secure exchange of data between servers and end-users.

Responsibilities

• 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.

Skills

• At least one year of 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.