Senior Software Engineer (Backend)

Respondology is the leader in AI-powered social comment moderation. We are now expanding our best-in-class AI technology to enable brands to listen and respond to people in their social communities. With over 500 brands on its platform reaching 2 billion people per month, Respondology is modernizing social marketing, while eradicating hate speech from social media. #TechnologyForGood.

Respondology is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to build and scale API services powering our Respond and Discover products. In this role, you'll develop RESTful APIs, optimize database performance, and integrate AI-powered features that help brands manage millions of social media comments. You'll work on high-traffic systems requiring sub-second response times while maintaining reliability at scale. If you're excited about performance optimization, clean API design, and solving complex technical challenges, we'd love to hear from you!

A day in the life:

• Build and maintain RESTful APIs for our Respond and Discover products using FastAPI/Python and Ruby on Rails
• Design and optimize database schemas, queries, and indexes for PostgreSQL and OpenSearch/Elasticsearch
• Analyze and improve API response times, focusing on sub-second performance for high-traffic endpoints
• Integrate with OpenAI APIs and optimize prompt engineering for AI-powered comment responses
• Debug production issues, conduct root cause analysis, and implement preventive solutions
• Write comprehensive tests and participate in code reviews to maintain high code quality
• Collaborate with frontend engineers and product managers to deliver features end-to-end
• Monitor system performance using DataDog and respond to alerts
  

Here's what you need to get our attention:

• Minimum 4 years of professional software engineering experience
• Minimum 3 years proven experience with Python backend development (FastAPI, Flask, or Django)
• Minimum 2 years working with PostgreSQL or other relational databases
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, related degree, or equivalent work experience. If you have a four-year degree, that's great; we care more about your past experience and ability to do the job, so please apply even if you don't have a degree”
• Strong understanding of RESTful API design principles and best practices
• Experience with query optimization, indexing strategies, and database performance tuning
• Proven ability to debug complex production issues and identify root causes
• Experience with automated testing (unit, integration, end-to-end)
• Strong communicator and team collaborator
• Demonstrated ability to take ownership of projects, work independently, and deliver within deadlines
  

Here's what will make us call you for sure:

• Experience with Ruby on Rails
• Experience with OpenSearch or Elasticsearch
• Familiarity with AI/LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.) and prompt engineering
• Experience with AWS services (ECS/Fargate, RDS, S3, SQS/SNS)
• Background in APM tools and observability (we use DataDog)
• Experience with queue-based background processing (Sidekiq, Kafka, Celery)
• Knowledge of OAuth, API authentication, and security best practices
• Experience optimizing high-traffic APIs (1000+ req/sec)
• Understanding of database replication, read replicas, and connection pooling
• Experience working at a rapidly-growing tech startup

Compensation:

$120,000 - $155,000 DOE, plus bonus and equity

Location: 

This is a 100% remote role. Must be willing to travel to Boulder, CO approximately twice per year for on-site work with your team–and fun!

And if we haven't convinced you yet, here is why you'll want to be part of our team:

• We have a values-led culture with team members who have your back.
• We support 100% remote employment or you may come into our beautiful offices if you're near Boulder, CO—dogs welcome.
• We understand the importance of a healthy work-life balance through providing flexible work arrangements, as well as a Flex PTO plan with generous holidays including a reduced schedule between Christmas and New Year's.
• We offer comprehensive and competitive benefits to support employee and family well-being including generous family leave policies, life insurance and supplemental insurance options.
• We provide matching traditional and Roth 401k, fully vested from day one.

COME AS YOU ARE: your gender, your gods, your sex life, your skin color or your big shot uncle don't make a difference here. Respondology is a progressive and open-minded meritocracy. If you're smart and good at what you do, come as you are.