Backend Engineer

Were a VC-funded Swiss-based startup looking for a senior backend developer with experience in Next React and Typescript.

Generative AI will transform fashion content creation but managing (searching culling selecting) amoong tens of thousands of images is a complicated. Editing them in the browser using AI (hence probabilistic) algorithm in a userfriendly way is the second big challenge.

We want to build a product that our business user love to use.

The role

You will own meaningful backend domains end-to-end and add real throughput where the team currently bottlenecks. The focus here is backend depth thats the bar alongside a deliberate bounded slice of platform and security work. Full-stack engineers who clear the backend bar are equally welcome: we care about what you can carry on the backend side not about whether you also work on the frontend.

The most interesting backend problem at Sartiq today isnt a feature backlog its an architecture one. Were pushing past tens of thousands of high-fidelity generations a day customer integrations are deepening per brand and the surface between our product our AI generation layer and the data we accumulate from it is becoming the part of the system that earns the company most of its leverage. Thats the work.

What youll own

Backend product engineering (80%)

• Core product backend services. Design and build the services behind the main app: APIs data models business logic the contracts that define how the product actually behaves to customers.
• Customer integrations. Each major customer ends up with their own backbone behind the scenes export pipelines transport adapters naming conventions automation. Youll own end-to-end pieces of this and help shape it into something more repeatable as the customer base grows.
• AI generation pipeline as a backend architecture problem. Clean service boundaries robust job lifecycle and state sharp retry/failure semantics the right contracts between the product and the generation layer. As we push past tens of thousands of generations a day this is the part that has to keep getting sharper. This isnt an infra problem dressed up its real backend architecture work.
• Data engineering as it grows. Production data flows usage analytics the internal data platform a surface starting to take real shape. Youll contribute to (and help define) what it becomes.

Platform & security (20%)

• DevOps/SRE backup (10%) be the second pair of hands in the infrastructure rotation: CI/CD deployments observability fallback coverage during PTO or incident peaks. A deliberate bounded slice enough that we stop being a one-person operation here.
• Security (10%) own targeted security projects as part of normal work: auth flows secret management dependency hygiene internal tooling. Real pieces of meaningful work not vague oversight.

What success looks like in 6 months

• You own at least one backend domain that the team routes work to you for
• A customer integration or core service you led is in production carrying real load
• One concrete security project auth secrets dependencies or similar is meaningfully better than when you started not just tracked
• Youve taken real load off the infrastructure rotation

Tasks

1. Mid-to-senior backend engineering experience. Most likely you have around 35 years of professional experience but the real bar is ownership judgment and shipping quality. Python is our primary stack (FastAPI SQLAlchemy async) and youll write it most days. Real depth in another modern backend (Go Rust Java ) is a credible path here too as long as youve shipped something in Python and pick up new stacks fast.
2. Strong SQL schema design complex queries migrations and indexing under real data
3. Backend architecture instincts you can reason about service boundaries contracts queues state failure modes observability not just CRUD
4. Solid security fundamentals auth flows OWASP-class vulnerabilities secure-by-default habits secret management
5. Light but real DevOps fundamentals Docker Linux CI/CD
6. A track record of shipping production features fast without leaving a mess
7. You use AI coding agents fluently and critically they speed you up but you still review output understand failure modes write tests and ship production-quality code
8. Fluent written and spoken English

Bonus

• Cloud experience on any major platform (AWS GCP Azure ) we deploy with Terraform and arent tied to one cloud
• Task queues (Celery/Redis) async pipelines Postgres operational concerns under load
• ML/AI service integrations (Vertex AI OpenAI Fal Replicate )
• Data engineering experience pipelines analytics internal data tooling
• Security background certifications CTFs homelab prior security-focused work
• You genuinely enjoy building with technology beyond assigned tickets personal projects automations experiments tools for yourself or others OSS software-and-hardware tinkering or past side projects you still care about
• You use AI for more than just code agentic harnesses automated personal pipelines custom tooling for your own life
• Italian the team speaks Italian day-to-day so its a real plus; English alone is fully sufficient

Requirements

This role is probably not for you if

• You want a pure feature role with zero architecture infrastructure or security exposure
• Backend to you means CRUD over a single service the scale integration and architecture work here will bore you if you dont enjoy that side
• Youre frontend-first and see backend as the part you tolerate
• Writing software is only a way to earn a salary for you and you have little curiosity for technology outside assigned work

Benefits

1. Autonomy & Impact: You wont be a ticket-taker. Youll have the agency to own the backend developement lifecycle for core features from hypothesis to production and see your work ship.
2. Competitive Compensation & Equity: We offer a top-tier salary and a meaningful stock option plan. We want you to have a real stake in what youre building.
3. A Lean Expert Team: Youll work directly with the founders in a fast-paced environment free from corporate bureaucracy.
4. Hybrid Work Model: We think that being in the same room often boosts productivity so we want you in the office at least 2 days per week. But we have no schedule. You decide when to work to maximise your productivity.

If youre an engineer who is obsessed with the generative space and wants to apply your skills to hard problems with real-world impact we would love to hear from you.

Our interview process is straightforward:
1. You share your github portfolio CV

2. Technical challenge
3. A chat with the founders