Context \& Mission
We are looking for a curious and rigorous
Junior Backend Engineer
to help design, build, and operate our
microservices
powering the Lefty platform. You’ll work primarily with
Java (21+)
and modern JVM tooling, build
gRPC/Protobuf
APIs consumed by our apps, and contribute to data-heavy services using
Elasticsearch
,
ScyllaDB
and
MariaDB
. You’ll collaborate with senior engineers, learn best practices, and take ownership of well-scoped features from design to production.
You’ll join an agile, ambitious team that values
technical excellence
,
observability
, and
reliability
. You’ll contribute to services that ingest and process large-scale social data, including features leveraging
open-source AI models
to enrich and classify content.
About the position
Design and implement services in Java:
Build well-structured, maintainable microservices with clean boundaries and clear domain models.
Define fast, typed APIs:
Ship and evolve
gRPC
services with
Protobuf
schemas. Keep contracts stable and backward compatible.
Search and storage at scale:
Model and query data effectively with
Elasticsearch
for search and
ScyllaDB
for high-throughput, low-latency workloads.
Quality and reliability:
Write unit and integration tests, participate in code reviews, and contribute to resilient, observable systems with logging, metrics, and tracing.
Operate what you build:
Help monitor production, debug incidents with teammates, and propose pragmatic improvements.
Collaborate cross-functionally:
Work closely with Product, Frontend, and Data to clarify requirements and deliver business value incrementally.
Build and test with Bazel:
Use
Bazel
as our build system for fast, reproducible, and scalable builds and CI. It’s a Google-grade toolchain that helps us keep builds hermetic and reliable.
Profile
We are looking for an engineer with
0–2 years of professional experience
in backend development.
Technical skills
Java fundamentals:
Solid understanding of modern Java features, concurrency basics, and the JVM ecosystem.
API development:
Experience building backend APIs.
Microservices basics:
Understanding of service boundaries, configuration, and inter-service communication.
Git:
Daily use of Git.
Soft skills \& mindset
Ownership / autonomy:
You follow through on your tasks, ask for help early, and care about the impact on users.
Learning mindset:
You’re eager to deepen your backend fundamentals and learn from reviews and pairing.
Pragmatism:
You balance iteration speed with system stability and maintainability.
Team spirit:
We’re a kind, supportive team that values a positive, energetic atmosphere. We help each other grow, celebrate wins together, and keep a good mood even when the problems are hard.
Nice to have
Exposure to
gRPC/Protobuf
.
Good knowledge of
SQL
and
Hibernate ORM
.
Datastores:
Familiarity with at least one of the following and readiness to learn both:
Elasticsearch, MariaDB
and
Cassandra/ScyllaDB
.
Testing:
Comfortable writing unit tests and basic integration tests.
CI:
Experience with CI pipelines.
Knowledge of
streaming
or
batch data processing
patterns.
Exposure to
AI/Open-source models
integration in backend services.
Interview process
HR call (10min)
Online coding test (\~30min)
Interview with CTO and a member of the tech team (\~1,5 hours)