Senior Backend Engineer

About the role

Aurora, an AI-native lifestyle operating system for high-performing people, is expanding its founding engineering team and hiring a Senior Backend Engineer to work alongside the CTO and the engineering team. The engineer designs and implements the core infrastructure behind the product, including APIs, background processing, agent orchestration and data pipelines, and reports directly to the CTO. The role is hands-on with a high level of ownership, with frequent trips to London and flexible remote days.

Key responsibilities

• Design and build backend services and APIs using Python and Django
• Own features end to end, from initial design to production rollout
• Maintain and evolve background processing, agent orchestration and LLM integrations
• Work with context-heavy data pipelines and RAG-style systems
• Operate and improve cloud infrastructure on GCP
• Improve performance across SQL queries, background jobs and API endpoints
• Debug production issues and lead incident resolution
• Implement secure coding practices and support compliance efforts
• Collaborate with product, curators and frontend/mobile engineers, review code and raise the technical bar

Required profile

• 5+ years building and operating production backend systems
• Strong, hands-on Python and Django experience
• Deep familiarity with Django and DRF, including common pitfalls
• Experience with background job systems (ideally Celery)
• Comfort designing reliable, observable systems
• Experience with LLMs or AI infrastructure, and exposure to agent-based systems or RAG pipelines
• Experience running cloud-native systems, ideally on GCP
• Infrastructure as Code, preferably Terraform
• Product mindset focused on reliability, latency and failure modes
• Clear communicator who takes ownership

Nice to have

• Familiarity with compliance frameworks (SOC2, PCI DSS, ISO 27001)
• Basic understanding of frontend or mobile stacks (Flutter, Vue)

What we offer

• Salary of $100,000 - $170,000 and meaningful equity
• $2,000 tech and education budget
• Complimentary Oura ring or Whoop, and a longevity testing subscription
• Lifestyle perks, events and access opportunities
• Health benefits with 90% coverage, including dental and vision
• Complimentary dinners and evening transport