Senior Backend Engineer — E-commerce Platform

Position Details:

Employment: Full-time, permanent W-2 employee.

Location: Fully remote within the United States; no office attendance or relocation required.

Schedule: Monday–Friday, 40 working hours per week. Saturday and Sunday off.

Working hours: Flexible start and finish times, with availability from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Central Time for collaboration. Lunch breaks are outside working hours.

Base salary: $175,000–$205,000 USD annually, before taxes, paid biweekly.

About the Role:

You will design and develop the backend services behind ParcelNest Hub, with a focus on order processing, inventory synchronization, and third-party integrations. This is a hands-on individual contributor role with ownership of technical decisions, from initial design through deployment and ongoing improvement.

You will work closely with Engineering, Product, and Customer Support to turn real customer problems into reliable software.

What You’ll Do:

1. Build and maintain backend services and APIs for orders, inventory, and shipping workflows.
2. Develop integrations with e-commerce platforms and shipping providers, including authentication, webhooks, and data synchronization.
3. Design background processing that handles retries, duplicate events, and third-party service failures safely.
4. Improve database performance, data integrity, and the reliability of customer-facing features.
5. Own projects from technical proposal and implementation through testing, rollout, and monitoring.
6. Investigate production issues during working hours and address their underlying causes.
7. Review code, document important decisions, and mentor teammates through pairing and constructive feedback.
8. Work with Product to balance customer needs, delivery timelines, and long-term maintainability.

What You’ll Bring:

1. At least five years of professional backend software engineering experience.
2. Strong production experience with Python and a framework such as FastAPI or Django.
3. Strong SQL skills and experience designing, maintaining, and optimizing PostgreSQL databases.
4. Experience building APIs and integrating with external services.
5. Practical understanding of asynchronous processing, message queues, idempotency, and failure recovery.
6. Experience deploying and supporting applications in a cloud environment, preferably AWS.
7. Confidence writing automated tests, reviewing code, and using logs and metrics to diagnose problems.
8. Clear written and spoken English and the ability to collaborate effectively in a remote team.
9. Experience independently delivering a substantial feature or service from design to production

A computer science degree is welcome but not required. We value relevant experience and demonstrated engineering judgment.

Nice to have:

Experience with Shopify or WooCommerce integrations, fulfillment systems, multi-tenant SaaS products, Redis, Terraform, or application observability.

You do not need experience with every tool in our stack to apply.

Our Technology Stack

Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, Redis, AWS, Docker, Terraform, and GitHub Actions

Compensation and Working Expectations:

The base salary range is $175,000–$205,000. Your offer will reflect relevant experience, system design skills, and the level of responsibility you can take on. The same range applies across eligible U.S. locations.

This is a salaried position. The stated range is base pay and does not include the value of benefits. No variable bonus or equity award is included in this sample package. Compensation is reviewed annually.

We plan work around a 40-hour week. This position does not include an after-hours on-call rotation or scheduled evening or weekend work.

Benefits:

• Medical, dental, and vision: Coverage begins on the first day of the month following hire. ParcelNest pays 90% of employee premiums and 50% of dependent premiums.
• 401(k): Eligible after 90 days, with a dollar-for-dollar employer match on the first 4% of eligible pay you contribute. Employer contributions vest immediately.
• Paid time off: 20 vacation days accrued annually, plus 7 paid sick days and 10 paid company holidays.
• Parental leave: 8 weeks of paid leave after 12 months of employment.
• Life and disability insurance: Company-paid basic life and short-term disability coverage.
• Remote equipment: Company-provided laptop, monitor, and accessories, plus a one-time $750 home-office allowance.
• Internet support: $75 monthly reimbursement toward home internet.
• Professional development: Up to $1,500 annually for approved courses, certifications, books, or conferences.
• Paid onboarding: A structured introduction to the product, architecture, and development process, with an assigned engineering buddy.

How We Work Together:

We value thoughtful engineering, clear communication, and people who follow through. You will have room to work independently, with teammates available to discuss a design or help investigate a difficult problem.

We document decisions, keep meetings focused, and give feedback respectfully. Asking for help is welcome. When something breaks, we focus on understanding the failure and improving the system.

You can contribute fully whether you are outgoing or more reserved. Social activities are optional, and personal time is respected.

Your First 90 Days:

1. First 30 days: Learn the product and architecture, set up your development environment, and ship an initial improvement with support from your onboarding buddy.
2. By 60 days: Own a scoped backend feature or integration improvement through design, testing, and release.
3. By 90 days: Independently lead a project and contribute a practical improvement to reliability, performance, or the development process.

Success is measured by reliable delivery, sound technical decisions, maintainable code, and effective collaboration.

Hiring Process:

1. A 30-minute introductory conversation about your experience and expectations.
2. A 60-minute practical coding and debugging session using a small sample service.
3. A 60-minute system design discussion based on an e-commerce workflow.
4. A 30-minute conversation with the Head of Engineering about collaboration and ownership.

No unpaid take-home project is required. The target process takes two to three weeks, with time for your questions at every stage.

Eligibility and Application:

Candidates must reside in the United States and be authorized to work there. Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.

An English-language résumé is required. A LinkedIn profile, GitHub profile, or examples of relevant work are optional; a cover letter is not required.

ParcelNest welcomes applicants from different backgrounds and provides reasonable accommodations throughout the interview process.