Backend Engineer

We’re entering a phase of rapid product and infrastructure scaling. To support this, we’re hiring a Backend Software Engineer to strengthen the performance, scalability, reliability, and security of our platform.

This role is for an engineer who enjoys building robust, well-structured systems that make complex applications simple to operate and scale. You’ll work across our cloud and backend stack - designing APIs, improving infrastructure, and building the systems that enable our customers to interact with powerful AI models at scale.

This is a hands-on, high-ownership role for someone who wants to build the core technology that enables the world’s most advanced materials to be developed and manufactured. You’ll have the freedom to make architectural decisions, work closely with scientists and engineers, and see your code directly power breakthroughs in industry and research.

This role reports directly to our and offers a significant degree of autonomy and influence over technical decisions and product direction.

A snapshot of your first 6 months at Polaron

• Month 1 – Understand and Contribute
  • Learn Polaron’s backend architecture, cloud environment, and deployment stack
  • Ship your first small, incremental changes to our systems
  • Get comfortable with our workflows for monitoring, testing, and releasing
• Month 3 – Take Ownership
  • Design, implement, and maintain backend systems supporting key product features
  • Improve reliability and performance of a core service (e.g. API, image processing, or orchestration)
  • Contribute to our observability and monitoring systems
• Month 6 – Drive Impact
  • Independently improve the scalability, performance, and reliability of key systems
  • Strengthen system security and automate testing and deployment pipelines
  • Influence our infrastructure and architecture roadmap

Requirements

You are an experienced backend engineer who builds reliable, maintainable, and secure systems.

• 4+ years of experience as a backend-focussed engineer.
• Strong skills in TypeScript, Node.js, and SQL (or similar technologies).
• Solid experience working with cloud providers such as AWS (or equivalent platforms like GCP or Azure), and developing software designed for deployment in these environments.
• Experience working with continuous integration and deployment pipelines, and with common cloud technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes.
• Proficiency in designing, documenting, and maintaining APIs and services.
• Comfort balancing quick iteration with reliability and long-term maintainability.

Bonus points for:

• Experience with Python (for ML or data workflows).
• Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform.
• Familiarity with security engineering, and compliance frameworks (e.g. ISO 27001, SOC 2).
• Experience working with GPU workloads or building highly-resilient distributed systems.

Mindset and values

• Cares deeply about system reliability and performance
• Enjoys automating repetitive tasks and improving developer velocity
• Is pragmatic - focused on what works over dogmatic processes
• Thrives on collaboration and transparent communication
• Balances autonomy with alignment; knows when to ask for clarity
• Has a continuous improvement mindset, eager to make the stack faster, safer, and simpler.