Senior Backend Node Developer (Greenfield Project)

The Opportunity:

We’re building something new from scratch, and we need an engineer who thinks beyond code.

This is a Staff-level position within a newly formed product squad. You’ll help drive the technical direction of a greenfield product built on Node.js, React, and AWS. We expect you to shape

what

gets built, not just

how

it gets built. You’ll challenge requirements, propose alternatives, spot gaps before they become problems, and drive delivery with the judgment that only comes from years of building production systems.

This role requires engineers who have fundamentally changed how they work using AI. We aren't talking about autocomplete. We mean engineers who are re-inventing the software development lifecycle. You should already be intimately working with Claude Code or Cursor, delegating entire implementation tasks to agents, and using Claude skills or project context to maintain quality at speed.

If your primary role has become directing, reviewing, and refining agent output rather than manual coding, you’re exactly who we’re looking for.

Why This Role Exists:

ELMO Software

is a leading HR tech platform serving 2,000+ organisations across Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. We are currently decomposing our monolith into modern services and building new capabilities from the ground up.

This squad is one of those new capabilities—a greenfield project with real autonomy and clear business impact. We’re building a squad around experienced engineers who operate with high ownership. The tech is modern, the constraints are real (multi-tenant SaaS, ISO-certified security), and the problems are interesting.

What You’ll Do

Drive Technical Direction:

Shape from First Principles:

Contribute to pattern choices, engineering standards, and architectural decisions.

Hands-on Leadership:

You’ll be in the codebase daily. This is a role for those who love to build, not just draw diagrams.

Architectural Thinking:

Design clean service boundaries, thoughtful API contracts (REST/GraphQL), and scalable data models.

Think Like a Product Engineer:

Constructive Friction:

Challenge requirements that don’t make sense for users or won't scale.

Focus on Outcomes:

Understand the customer problem, not just the ticket. Shipping features nobody uses is not success.

Work at the Frontier of AI Engineering:

Agent Orchestration:

Use

Claude Code

or

Cursor with Opus

as your primary environment. You delegate implementation and review output with the same rigour you’d apply to a human peer.

Advanced Patterns:

Leverage

CLAUDE.md

files, multi-file scaffolding, and iterative refinement to maintain velocity.

The "Human" Safety Net:

Use your depth to catch subtle security gaps, performance anti-patterns, or architectural drift that agents might miss.

Push the Standard Forward:

Champion Fundamentals:

Drive clean architecture, meaningful tests, and thoughtful documentation.

Mentorship:

Help the squad transition from manual coding to agent-driven development by demonstrating what "good" looks like.

What We’re Looking For:

8+ years

of professional experience with deep expertise in

Node.js and TypeScript

.

Modern Framework Mastery:

Strong experience with

NestJS, Fastify, or Express

.

AI-Native Workflow:

Active, constant use of Claude Code/Cursor. We’ll ask you to walk us through your setup and prompt patterns.

Cloud Knowledge:

Experience designing and building systems on

AWS

.

Architectural Fluency:

Understanding of DDD, event-driven architecture, and service decomposition.

Communication:

Ability to explain complex decisions clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Valued Experience:

Experience with

React.js

for full-stack delivery.

Experience with message brokers (

Kafka, SQS

).

History of working in multi-tenant SaaS with enterprise security requirements (

ISO 27001

).

How We Work:

Frequency:

We ship multiple times per day; we measure cycle time, not lines of code.

Security First:

We are ISO 27001:2022 certified and pursuing ISO 42001:2023 for responsible AI.

AI-Invested:

Our org has achieved over 90% adoption of AI-assisted tools. This isn’t the future—it’s our today.

Thinkers Welcome:

The best code is often the code you don’t write. We value understanding the problem over rushing to a solution.

Tech Stack:

Node, TypeScript, NestJS/Fastify, React, Kafka, Bedrock, AWS, and Kubernetes.

Note: This role is based in

Sydney

(Hybrid/580 George St). No agency help is required.

ELMO Software Pty Ltd is an equal opportunity employer, and we encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds to join our team. We are also committed to advancing reconciliation at ELMO through our Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).

At ELMO, we are passionate about empowering HR with responsible, secure and safe AI, aiming to be among the first in Australia and New Zealand to achieve ISO 42001:2023 certification. Handling sensitive employee data necessitates strict adherence to our ISO 27001:2022 Certified security policies, making data privacy and security paramount in every role.