Senior Backend Engineer / API Lead

About the Project

You will be joining the core team building a next-generation emergency management response platform designed to coordinate disaster response across government entities, first responders, and community volunteers.

The platform is being developed for state and local government clients in Texas and is targeting an MVP release in late May 2026.

The GUI team is actively vibe-coding the Next.js web app using AI-assisted development in Cursor. The API layer is the critical missing piece, and this role owns it end to end.

Role Overview

This is a high-impact, embedded engineering role. You will join an active project mid-stream, get up to speed quickly, and immediately start making architectural decisions.

You will work directly alongside the solution architect and GUI team, own the entire API surface, and eventually grow into team lead as additional engineers are brought in.

This is not a build-ticket-and-ship role. You will be in meetings, shaping requirements, correcting entity design in real time, and setting standards that the rest of the project will depend on.

Key Responsibilities

API Ownership

• Own and lead the design and implementation of the OpenAPI specification
• Define and enforce data modeling standards across the project (entities, IDs, types, relationships)
• Review the GUI team's generated TypeScript types and mock API calls, providing corrections and alignment to the agreed spec
• Implement and maintain the actual API layer once the stack is finalized
• Ensure epoch-millis timestamps and other architectural decisions are applied consistently throughout

Requirements Collaboration

• Participate in all project meetings: requirements sessions, status calls, and architecture reviews
• Proactively flag inconsistencies between the GUI team's assumptions and the intended API design
• Translate functional requirements from non-technical stakeholders into clear API contracts
• Fill the types folder and API folder in the Next.js project with finalized, corrected definitions

Tech Stack Definition

• Evaluate and recommend the backend API implementation stack (framework, language, DB) given the AWS-only constraint
• Propose a clear architecture: API endpoints, service layers, data stores, and event handling
• Set up the initial project structure and development environment

Team Leadership (Phase 2)

• Transition into API team lead as 1-2 additional engineers join
• Define sprint work, code review standards, and onboarding for incoming engineers
• Maintain architecture ownership and make final decisions on API design

Technical Requirements

Must Have

• 5+ years of backend engineering experience with APIs in production environments
• Deep experience designing and implementing RESTful APIs with OpenAPI / Swagger
• Strong AWS skills: EC2, RDS/Aurora, Lambda, IAM, CDK or equivalent IaC
• Solid understanding of data modeling: normalization, entity design, primary key strategies
• Experience working alongside frontend/mobile teams and aligning on API contracts
• Proficiency in at least one typed backend language (TypeScript/Node.js, Python, Go, Java, or Kotlin)
• Experience working within GitHub-based workflows (PRs, branching, code reviews)

Strong Plus

• Experience deploying Next.js applications on AWS (non-Vercel, self-hosted)
• Familiarity with AWS CDK or SST for infrastructure as code
• Prior work on government, compliance-sensitive, or regulated software (HIPAA, SOC 2, TxRAMP, FedRAMP)
• Experience on projects using AI-assisted development tools (Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot)
• Background in emergency management, public safety, or geospatial systems is a plus but not required

Non-Technical Requirements

• Based in LATAM with availability to overlap with US Central Time (CST) business hours
• Fluent English: written and verbal, capable of leading technical discussions with non-technical stakeholders
• Extremely high standards for honesty and transparency, especially when raising risks or blockers
• Proactive communicator: does not wait to be asked; surfaces issues, proposes solutions
• Comfortable working in an ambiguous environment where requirements are still being finalized
• Strong professional presence in meetings and cross-functional discussions