Senior Backend Engineer

Type: Full-time
Title: Senior Backend Engineering
Salary: 100,000-140,000 $/yr

About Projekt Network

Projekt Network is a professional networking and collaboration platform connecting tradespeople and businesses in the construction and skilled trades industry. We’re building the future of how trades professionals find opportunities, collaborate on projects, and grow their networks.

The Role

We’re seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to join our growing team. You’ll work on a sophisticated Django-based platform that handles complex networking features, real-time notifications, job matching, and project collaboration. This is an opportunity to work on a production system serving real users, with modern cloud infrastructure and interesting technical challenges.

Key Responsibilities

1. Platform Performance & Optimization Profile backend, frontend, and database performance; identify bottlenecks before users feel them. Reduce cold start times, database query latency, and API response times. Implement caching layers, CDNs, smarter indexing, rate limiting, and other core speed primitives. Design and maintain monitoring dashboards (logs, traces, metrics).
2. Scalability Architecture Evaluate and re-architect components as needed to support 100k+ active users. Lead decisions around microservices vs monolith maturity, horizontal scaling, containerization, load balancing. Manage infrastructure-as-code and deployment pipelines.
3. Reliability & Uptime Create tight alerting thresholds and predictable on-call escalation (lightweight—this is early stage). Own SLAs and SLOs for latency, throughput, and availability. Ensure the platform is stable during user growth spikes, ad campaigns, and influencer pushes.
4. Database & Storage Optimization Optimize Postgres (assumed) or current RDBMS for high concurrency. Improve query plans, implement caching strategies, tune indexes. Future-proof data models for rapid feature expansion.
5. Security & Infrastructure Hygiene Harden cloud infrastructure (GCP). Conduct periodic audits on access, permissions, secrets, and backups.

Technical Stack

Core Technologies:

• Python 3.12+
• Django 5.0 & Django REST Framework
• PostgreSQL (Google Cloud SQL)
• Celery + Redis
• Docker

Cloud & Infrastructure:

• Google Cloud Platform (App Engine, Cloud SQL, Cloud Storage, Secret Manager)
• GitHub Actions for CI/CD

Additional Tools & Services:

• JWT authentication (Clerk integration)
• Sentry for error monitoring
• Postmark for email delivery
• Expo

What We’re Looking For

Required Experience:

• 5+ years of professional backend development experience
• Strong proficiency in Python and Django (5+ years)
• Experience building and maintaining REST APIs
• Solid understanding of PostgreSQL and database optimization
• Experience with async task processing (Celery or similar)
• Production experience with cloud platforms (GCP, AWS, or Azure)
• Understanding of Docker and containerization
• Experience building comprehensive unit tests
• Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines such as github actions
• Experience with Git and collaborative development workflows

Nice to Have:

• Experience with Google Cloud Platform services
• Experience with authentication systems and JWT
• Understanding of image processing and file storage
• Experience with monitoring and observability tools (Sentry, etc.)
• Experience with load testing and performance optimization

Soft Skills:

• Strong problem-solving abilities
• Excellent communication skills (English required)
• Ability to work independently and take ownership
• Collaborative mindset and code review experience
• Attention to detail and commitment to code quality
• Proactive approach to identifying and solving issues

What You’ll Get

• Competitive salary and equity package
• Remote-first work environment (Montreal timezone preferred)
• Flexible working hours
• Opportunity to work on a product with real users and impact
• Modern tech stack and best practices
• Collaborative team environment
• Professional development opportunities

Application Process

Please submit your resume and a brief note about why you’re interested in this role. Include any relevant GitHub repositories or portfolio projects that demonstrate your Django/Python expertise.