Lead Backend Engineer (Integrations)

Stellic EngineersStellic engineers combine a rare blend of curiosity, creativity, and business acumen with the ability to deliver pragmatic solutions at high velocity with uncompromising quality. Our mission is to help students, and our engineers always have that in mind as they are building.The RoleStellic is at a significant crossroads. Having proved incredibly strong product-market fit, and having maintained enviable customer NPS ratings, it’s time to prepare for the next stages of our evolution. The naive implementations of our data pipelines have reached their expiration date, yet we continue to have ambitious roadmaps that will allow us to continue to improve the lives of students all over the world. We need someone who can lead us into the future by driving upgrades to our data pipelines while at the same time up-leveling our current engineering team’s ability to delight our users with new product capabilities.What You'll DoWork closely with the founders and product managers to understand the Why behind each capability in the platformHelp to drive alignment on the prioritization of engineering-driven priorities along side product priorities Design and lead the implementation of scalable backend architectures for mission-critical enterprise applicationsBuild and maintain clean data orchestration pipelinesDevelop and optimize database schemas and queries to process terabytes of data efficientlyUp-level our general engineering rigor and maturity by mentoring other engineers in best practices, design patterns, and code qualityEnsure a high-degree of quality by designing robust testing strategies and implementing suites of reliable testsWho You Are5+ years of experience as a API / integrations / backend / data engineer operating at scale (minimum 3+ years of experience in data engineering specifically)Strong ownership mindset and the ability to autonomously lead and drive complex implementationsDeep curiosity, customer empathy, and commitment to engineering as a craftAbility to plan, estimate, and manage the technical aspects of project execution and deliveryExcellent problem-solving skills and ability to mentor junior developersImpeccable communication skills for collaborating with product, design, and customer-facing teamsProven track record building and managing APIs, data integrations and data orchestration pipelines for ETL and other large-scale data processing problems using high-level languages like Python and frameworks like Dagster, Airflow, etc. Deep knowledge of and experience with data processing frameworks like DuckDB, Polars, Pandas, Kafka, Spark, etc. Strong understanding of data infrastructure, governance, compliance and how enterprises use dataExperience working with iPaaS solutions like FiveTran, Talend, Airbyte, etc. Deep experience with ORMs, RESTful APIs, background jobs, etc; (DRF, Celery a plus)Experience with both single- and multi-tenant architecturesAdvanced skills in cloud deployment and hyperscalers (AWS a plus)Strong proficiency in designing and optimizing SQL databases and complex SQL queries (PostgreSQL a plus)Experience with asynchronous / event-based programming, message / event queues, etc. Strong background in API design, documentation, and versioning strategiesSolid understanding of software testing, CI/CD practices, observability, etc. (AWS CodeDeploy, Sentry, Grafana, Prometheus a plus)Our Tech StackWhile we plan on introducing new technologies and capabilities, and potentially migrating away from current ones, here is the general shape of our current stack:Languages: Python, SQL, ShellFrameworks: Django, Angular, React, Remix, Databases: PostgreSQLVersion control: Git (GitHub)Cloud: AWSDeployment: AWS CodeDeployWhy Join Stellic?Shape the future of an impact-driven company at the forefront of higher education transformationWork closely with an ambitious, mission driven leadership teamOwn and scale the recruiting engine of a high growth companyCompetitive salary, equity, and a culture of excellence, speed, and ownership. Work and learn from some of the most prominent thought leaders in higher education and SaaSGenerous stock options in a Series A stage startupFlexible, outcome-based cultureComprehensive health insurance, with Stellic covering 99% of your premium and 75% for dependents on our base plan401K and commuter benefitsAnnual international retreats in some of the most beautiful cities & townsCompensation$220,000 - $260,000 base salary, plus equityWork LocationCandidates must be willing to work in-office in the Bay Area 3 days per week as part of our hybrid work culture.