Senior Software Engineer I

GOAT Group is a leading platform for authentic sneakers, apparel, and accessories, with a global community of over 60 million members. They are seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to lead backend architecture and system design for consumer-facing features while optimizing existing systems for performance and reliability.

Responsibilities:

• Lead backend architecture and system design, proactively proposing and driving new systems that support critical customer facing features
• Take point on initiatives, owning the backend roadmap, driving technical decisions, and coordinating cross-functional delivery
• Optimize existing systems for performance, reliability, and cost. You treat production health as a first-class priority, not an afterthought
• Serve as the team's technical anchor: set engineering standards, lead design reviews, unblock teammates
• Manage technical roadmap and problems of significantly larger scope, from formulating an efficient game plan to delivering stable, well-tested features on time
• Make technical recommendations that improve the codebase while minimizing risk; identify and fix (or ideally prevent) bugs and performance bottlenecks
• Coordinate and communicate seamlessly across engineering, product, and design teams
• Leverage AI coding tools (Claude, Codex, etc.) to accelerate development velocity for yourself and the team

Requirements:

• 5+ years of software engineering experience, with deep expertise in backend / distributed systems
• Proven track record of leading a team to execute and ship features, you've been the tech lead others rely on
• Strong proficiency in Go, Python, Ruby, or similar backend languages/frameworks
• Hands-on experience designing, building, and scaling distributed systems that handle real-world traffic at scale
• Proficient with AI-assisted development tools (Claude, Codex, Copilot, etc.) and a believer in using them to multiply team output
• A T-shaped engineer / generalist mindset with deep expertise in at least one domain (e.g., API design, data pipelines, event-driven architectures, infrastructure)
• A proactive ownership mentality, you don't wait for permission to improve things; you identify problems, propose solutions, and execute
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity, handling conflict constructively, and building consensus across teams with competing priorities
• Familiarity with the technologies, tradeoffs, and design patterns emerging in modern web services and cloud-native architectures
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience
• Frontend experience (React, TypeScript, iOS, Android or similar), we value engineers who can work across the stack when needed
• Familiarity with ecommerce applications