Senior Backend Engineer

Hybrid (2 days in office) - Bay Area, United States

About Falcon

Falcon Labs is a checkout marketing platform that specializes in transforming the post-purchase experience into a powerful customer engagement and discovery opportunity.

Our solution uses advanced technology and AI to deliver personalized, contextually relevant offers to consumers at their peak engagement moment.

By optimizing the customer journey with tailored recommendations during check-out, we enable businesses to unlock incremental revenue streams while enhancing customer satisfaction through a rewarding user experience.

We are a team of ad-tech veterans with vast experience building advertising tools in the mobile advertising space (ironSource/Unity), excited to bring machine learning, ad targeting and ROAS capabilities to boost e-commerce businesses.

The Challenge

We're building ad-serving infrastructure from the ground up — not another CRUD app. You'll work on:

  • Ad Server: Real-time placement optimization and bidding logic serving millions of requests

  • Infrastructure at Scale: PostgreSQL optimization, Redis caching, AWS ECS orchestration

  • Platform Integrations: Connecting with major e-commerce platforms (Shopify and others) and ad networks

  • Analytics Engine: Time-series data processing with multi-dimensional revenue reporting

  • Data Pipelines: ETL workflows feeding our analytics and optimization systems

Our Tech Stack

  • Backend: KeystoneJS 6, Node.js, PostgreSQL 16, Redis, Prisma ORM

  • Infrastructure: AWS ECS, Terraform, Docker, Application Load Balancer

  • Data: Snowflake, n8n automation workflows

  • Tooling: Yarn Workspaces, Jest, Sentry

  • AI-forward: AI is used across development, automation, and product

What You'll Do

Build core systems

  • Architect and implement ad-serving infrastructure for real-time bidding

  • Design high-performance APIs with strict latency and throughput requirements

  • Build revenue tracking and analytics systems


Own complex backend problems

  • Manage database migrations, query optimization, and caching strategies

  • Implement third-party integrations with e-commerce and ad-tech partners

  • Build internal tools and automation workflows


Data-driven development

  • Optimize PostgreSQL query plans and indexing strategies

  • Design caching layers and data access patterns for high-throughput workloads

  • Implement A/B testing infrastructure for ad placement optimization


Cross-functional impact

  • Work directly with founders and product team

  • Shape technical architecture and engineering practices

  • Mentor junior developers and contractors

Who We're Looking For

Required

  • 5+ years of backend development experience, preferably Node.js or TypeScript

  • Strong PostgreSQL knowledge, including query optimization, indexing, and migrations

  • Production experience with cloud infrastructure, ideally AWS

  • API design experience including REST, webhooks, and third-party integrations

  • Ownership mindset, you identify problems and solve them


What we value

  • Sense of urgency, you ship fast without cutting corners

  • Adaptability, you thrive when priorities shift

  • AI-forward mindset, you actively use AI tools in your workflow

  • Strong opinions, loosely held

  • Systems thinking across databases, caches, queues, and services


Bonus points

  • Ad-tech experience such as RTB, DSPs, attribution, or affiliate marketing

  • Data engineering experience including ETL pipelines or Snowflake

  • Experience with our stack: KeystoneJS, Prisma, PostgreSQL, AWS ECS

Why Join Falcon?

Financial upside

  • Competitive salary and meaningful equity

  • Early-stage company with real traction


echnical growth

  • Complex problems like real-time bidding and multi-tenant analytics

  • AI-first development culture

  • Ownership of major backend systems and architecture

  • Direct impact, your work will influence real revenue quickly


Culture and environment

  • Hybrid setup: 2 days in office, 3 days remote

  • Small team, high impact, no bureaucracy

  • Learning budget for conferences and courses

  • Technical founders who understand engineering trade-offs

Ready?

If you're a senior backend engineer who gets excited about infrastructure challenges, wants ownership over critical systems, and thrives in a fast-paced environment — we want to hear from you.

Don't check every box? If you're passionate about ad-tech, backend systems, and building from scratch, reach out anyway.

Falcon is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates regardless of race, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, or disability status.

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