Backend Engineer - APIs

Reading Digital employs 820 people across engineering hubs in Reading and three other locations, building ERP software for mid-market manufacturers.

The role

This is a newly created position. We want someone who writes boring, reliable code and leaves good logs behind. This is a long-term contractor role, paid monthly in USD. Core hours are 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM UK time. You get a company laptop and a headset before you start.

Duties

• Write integration and contract tests so API changes don't break consumers.
• Secure endpoints with OAuth 2.0, JWT validation and proper input checks.
• Document APIs in OpenAPI and keep the docs current.
• Reduce cloud costs by right-sizing services and cleaning up unused resources.
• Model data and write migrations for PostgreSQL, MySQL or DynamoDB.
• Instrument services with metrics, structured logs and OpenTelemetry traces.
• Tune slow queries, add indexes and read query plans.
• Design and build REST and gRPC APIs in Go, Java or Python.

Required qualifications

• 2+ years of backend development experience in a production environment.
• Comfort reading logs, metrics and traces to debug problems in production.
• Working knowledge of message queues or streaming platforms.
• Clear written communication, including design docs.
• Proficiency in at least one of Go, Java, Kotlin, Python, C# or Node.js.
• Hands-on experience with AWS, GCP or Azure services.

Preferred qualifications

• Background with high-volume payment or ledger systems.
• NoSQL stores such as MongoDB, Cassandra or DynamoDB.

Salary: $14.00 to $16.50 an hour

Benefits

• Paid in USD.
• Company laptop.

Duration: 12 months. Start: Immediately.

Demo job created on 11jobs for testing and demonstrations. It is not an actual opening at Reading Digital.