Lead Backend Engineer

Insense, a partner of Meta and TikTok, is a platform that helps brands work with creators. We connect companies with more than 68,500 trusted creators in 35+ countries, mainly in the U.S.Through Insense, brands can easily make content, run influencer campaigns, and grow their business. Today, over 2,000 mid-sized brands already use Insense to power their creator marketing.

Creators are shaping the future of marketing and driving real business impact. Join the economy that’s transforming how brands grow, we’d love for you to be part of this journey!

Founded in 2016, we are a remote-first company of 40+ people from 13+ countries.

About the role

We are looking for a Lead Backend Engineer to join our team.

This is a hands-on role where you'll continue coding while also helping guide the technical direction of the team. You'll work on backend development, architecture decisions, code reviews, and solving complex technical challenges, while supporting other engineers and helping keep projects moving forward.

You'll partner closely with Product, Design, QA, and the rest of the Engineering team to build and improve features that bring value to our users.

We're looking for someone with solid backend engineering experience, a strong sense of ownership, and a product mindset. Someone who enjoys sharing knowledge, helping others grow, and leading through collaboration and technical expertise rather than traditional people management.

📍You must be within CET ±2 hours

⏰This is a full time role with a flexible schedule, you must be available every working day between 9 am and 12 pm EST.

Who we are looking for:

Required:

• 5+ years of backend engineering experience

• Strong written and verbal English

• Previous experience leading technical projects, mentoring engineers, or guiding a small engineering team

• Proficiency in Ruby; experience with functional programming patterns is a strong plus

• Advanced SQL / PostgreSQL knowledge

• Experience with GraphQL API development

• Comfortable with DevOps concepts - deployments, Kubernetes, GCP

• AI-native. You actively use AI tools (Claude, Cursor, etc.) in your daily development workflow

• Product-minded, proactive, and able to work across cultures

• Strong ownership mindset and ability to drive technical decisions from idea to delivery

• Experience leading architecture discussions, code reviews, and engineering best practices

• Ability to balance hands-on development with technical leadership responsibilities

Nice to have:

• Experience with Roda, Sequel, or dry-rb

• Background in e-commerce, creator economy, or marketplace products

Our tech stack:

• Ruby + Roda + dry-rb ecosystem (dry-transaction, dry-monads, dry-validation)

• PostgreSQL + Sequel ORM

• GraphQL APIs (graphql-ruby, AnyCable subscriptions)

• Sidekiq Pro + Clockwork for background jobs

• Redis for caching, queues, and real-time features

• Kubernetes on GKE (Google Cloud Platform)

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain our backend systems and services.

• Lead technical discussions and help define the architecture and technical direction of the backend.

• Remain actively involved in coding, code reviews, and solving complex technical challenges.

• Oversee the development and maintenance of our GraphQL API, ensuring scalability, performance, and reliability.

• Support and mentor engineers through technical guidance, knowledge sharing, and feedback.

• Help prioritize work, identify blockers, and drive projects through to delivery.

• Manage deployments and contribute to infrastructure improvements in our Kubernetes environment on GKE.

• Work closely with Product, Design, QA, and Engineering teams to deliver high-quality features and a great user experience.

• Proactively identify opportunities for product and technical improvements based on business and user needs.

• Help establish and maintain engineering best practices, code quality standards, and development processes.

• Foster a collaborative and inclusive team environment while working with colleagues across different cultures and time zones.

What we offer

• Forever remote role 💻

• Work from anywhere role 📍

• Salary in USD commensurate with your experience and location 💰

• 15 days of paid time off, plus US holidays (Get one extra day for each year with us.)🏖

• Team retreats around the world. Sneak peek, check out our past off-sites here🌴

• International exposure to global clients and employees in AMER + EMEA 🌎

This role is open to anyone based in EMEA timezone under a contractor agreement, meaning you will work as an independent contractor and manage your own taxes and local contributions according to your country’s regulations. Kindly select the “Worldwide” option in case your location is not listed.

Please note we use a third-party payment provider that does not operate in the following locations: Afghanistan, Belarus, Crimea (Ukraine), Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Donetsk People’s Republic (Ukraine), Iran, Iraq, Kherson Oblast (Ukraine), Libya, Luhansk People’s Republic (Ukraine), Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, and Zaporizhzhia Oblast (Ukraine).

Originally posted on Himalayas