Senior Backend Engineer (Remote in Europe)

Backend Engineer Level: Senior(L3)/ Lead (L4) • Location: Remote (Europe preferred) GMT/GMT+1 working hours • Employment Type: Full-time through EOR • Reporting to: Head of Engineering About UpScrolled UpScrolled is an independent social media platform built on a simple idea: people should control what they see, say, and share online. We exist because we were tired of social media that treats people like products. So we’re building the alternative: a platform where your data stays yours, your voice actually reaches your followers, and your feed belongs to you, not an algorithm. We’re a small, fast-moving team with a big mission and a community of millions of UpScrollers who joined because they were done waiting for someone else to fix social media. We need people who care about that as much as we do. Come scroll differently with us. About the Role We’re hiring a technical owner on the UpScrolled engineering team. UpScrolled is building a social media platform at pace, and the backend systems that power it need to be scalable, reliable, and built to last. You’ll lead the design, development, and ownership of our core platform services — combining hands-on development with technical leadership. This is not a management-track role that has drifted away from the code. You’ll be building alongside the team, driving architectural decisions, and mentoring engineers — all at the same time. You’ve done this in a startup or high-growth environment before and you know how to hold a high engineering bar without slowing the team down. What You’ll Do Lead the design, development, and deployment of scalable backend services and applications built with TypeScript and C#/.NET Take full ownership of major engineering initiatives — from architecture and technical design through implementation, deployment, and long-term operation Design and implement robust REST APIs supporting high-volume traffic and critical business workflows Architect and maintain cloud-native, serverless systems on AWS designed for reliability, scalability, and operational simplicity Mentor engineers through code reviews, design discussions, and ongoing technical guidance Lead cross-team technical initiatives, helping break down complex problems and coordinate delivery across engineers Improve engineering practices including automated testing, CI/CD pipelines, and operational reliability Collaborate with product, design, and infrastructure teams to deliver maintainable and scalable systems Identify and resolve performance, reliability, and scaling challenges across platform services Participate in on-call coverage; respond to incidents, troubleshoot backend services, and support issue resolution with the team Technical Expertise Backend & Platform Server-side JavaScript / TypeScript architecture REST API design and implementation High-availability backend services Real-time systems and notification architectures Cloud & Infrastructure AWS cloud services Cloud-native and serverless architecture Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, AWS CDK, CloudFormation) CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions Databases PostgreSQL MongoDB Engineering Practices Test-driven development Deployment automation Performance optimization Observability and operational reliability Nice to Have Experience building frontend applications with React and/or Next.js Experience developing cross-platform mobile applications using Flutter What Success Looks Like Core platform systems are reliable, performant, and well-understood by the team Engineers you’ve mentored are shipping with more confidence and fewer architectural mistakes Technical decisions have clear rationale and are documented — no black boxes The engineering team is building on a foundation that scales, not one that needs to be rebuilt What You Are 10+ years of professional software engineering experience with strong command of JavaScript and TypeScript Someone with proven ownership of large technical initiatives or platform components A demonstrated leader who mentors engineers and guides architectural decisions — not just a senior IC Experienced designing and operating scalable cloud-native systems on AWS in production Strong experience with PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and modern data persistence patterns What You Are Not Someone who has drifted fully into engineering management and no longer wants to write code Someone who makes architectural decisions in isolation without bringing the team along Someone who treats reliability and observability as post-launch concerns Compensation We believe in transparent compensation. Our salaries vary depending on work location. Please see our zones and ranges below. Netherlands, Ireland, UK, Germany: Senior: 67,916€/60,429£ Lead: 81,499€/72,515£ Spain, Portugal, Poland: Senior: 52,426€ Lead: 62,911€ We hire in all European countries and many others around the globe. If your location is not listed above, please still apply, and note your location. We will share salary information during the first interview if you are selected. We offer health insurance to all employees, along with paid time off (vacation, sick, parental, etc.) in compliance with local labor regulations in the employee’s country of residence. Equal Opportunity UpScrolled is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a team that reflects the diversity of the people our product serves. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, or any other protected characteristic. If you need accommodations at any stage of the hiring process, please reach out — we will work with you. Application Process We will accept applications for this position until June 10th, 2026 . Once the application period closes, we review the entire candidate pool before moving forward with interviews. Our process typically looks like this: a 30-minute introductory call with People Operations, followed by at least two additional interviews with the team. We aim to respond to all applicants within 5 business days of the application window closing. If you need any adjustments to our process, please let us know. Work Authorization Candidates must have the legal right to work in their stated location. UpScrolled does not currently offer visa sponsorship.