Senior Backend Developer

TL;DR: We’re growing our dev team and looking for a Senior Backend Developer to own and scale the systems powering Hallow. You’ll lead high-impact projects, design reliable and scalable architecture, and help us move quickly while maintaining quality as we continue to grow.

What You'll Do

• Build & Scale Core Systems: Design and implement scalable, reliable APIs and backend services that power our mobile apps and content platform
• Own Projects End-to-End: Lead initiatives from ideation through deployment, making strong technical decisions and ensuring successful delivery
• Improve Infrastructure & Performance: Evolve our architecture to handle growth—optimize performance, reliability, and global scalability
• Develop Internal Tools: Build systems and tooling that empower content, community, and support teams to operate efficiently
• Drive Technical Direction: Identify opportunities to improve systems, reduce tech debt, and enhance developer experience
• Leverage AI for Velocity: Use AI tools to accelerate development, debugging, and iteration while maintaining high quality and strong engineering judgment

What You'll Love

• Mission: This work is incredibly humbling. Every day we get amazing stories and get the pleasure of working on something that impacts lives. One of my favorite user quotes: “I hate quoting an old, overused cliche, but I’ve been very lost. And I think for the first time in a while I may be found.”
• Ownership: You’ll be a massive part of our growth. There’s nothing more exciting than being able to see your work touch thousands of lives around the world and truly build a world-class experience with every email, push notification, blog, and more. You’ll be doing that every day.
• Growth: From day 1, you’ll be a part of the startup journey. We’re growing quickly, and we’ll need your help to continue to build out features and functionality for our users in our Android app.
• Flexibility: HQ is in Chicago and we would love to have as many team members there as possible, but we are completely flexible on location within the United States and Canada.
• Comp: We will pay competitive market rates in terms of equity, cash, & benefits.

What We’re Looking For

• Passion: First and foremost, we’re looking for someone excited and passionate about our mission. It makes it a lot more fun to actually care about what you’re working on!
• Experience: 5+ years building backend systems (NodeJS/TypeScript preferred); strong experience designing scalable, reliable systems; deep understanding of APIs, databases, and system architecture; experience with SQL (MySQL), AWS, and distributed systems
• Ownership: Proven ability to lead projects end-to-end, take initiative, and solve ambiguous problems
• Technical Judgment: Strong ability to make tradeoffs between speed, quality, and scalability
• Collaboration: Clear communicator who works well cross-functionally and elevates teammates through mentorship and feedback
• AI Fluency: Comfortable leveraging AI tools to increase development velocity while maintaining high standards for code quality and system design
• Grit & Craft: High attention to detail and a drive to build high-quality products that stand out

Compensation

$140,000 - $185,000 USD per year
The above range only includes cash compensation. Each full-time employee in the US also receives equity compensation, alongside a top-tier benefits package (e.g., unlimited PTO, insurance, remote-flexible work, fully paid parental leave, 401(k) match, and stipends for spiritual development, health & wellness, home-office, and learning).
The above range for cash compensation refers to base salary. All full-time employees are also eligible to be considered for a discretionary bonus at the end of each fiscal year. These ranges are just initial estimates. They may vary depending on market or location and may be adjusted depending on the person we end up hiring for this role, their experience, and market dynamics.