Staff Backend Engineer, Recipe Management System

About CookUnity: Food has lost its soul to modern convenience. And with it, it has lost the power to nourish, inspire, and connect us. So in 2018, CookUnity was founded as the first-of-its-kind platform that connects the world with the source of truly great food: chefs. Today, CookUnity delivers 50 million meals a year from the industry’s best chefs to homes all over the country. Fresh. Ready-to-eat. And crafted with the passion that nourishes body and soul. Unwilling to stop there, CookUnity is expanding beyond delivery to become an ever-innovating marketplace focused on our singular mission: empower Chefs to nourish the world. If that mission has you hungry in more ways than one, you’ve found the right job posting. About the Team: The Recipe Management System (RMS) Team is at the heart of CookUnity’s culinary innovation. Our team builds and maintains the systems that chefs rely on to create, manage, and scale their recipes seamlessly. RMS is a core part of CookUnity’s ChefOS Zone , supporting the entire meal lifecycle—from ideation to production—ensuring accuracy in ingredient sourcing, nutritional data, and compliance with dietary preferences. We work closely with chefs, supply chain teams, and operations to integrate RMS with inventory management, order processing, and fulfillment. Our mission is to empower chefs with intuitive tools while ensuring efficiency and reliability in meal production at scale. The Role: We are looking for a Staff Backend Engineer to join our team who can also contribute on dashboards and internal app UIs. In this role, you will design, build, and maintain highly scalable backend services that power CookUnity’s core recipe management functionalities. You will work alongside other talented engineers, product managers, and designers to develop robust and efficient backend systems using Kotlin and Java , leveraging frameworks like Micronaut or Spring Boot and integrating Temporal for workflow automation. This is an individual contributor (IC) role with a strong focus on backend architecture, performance, and scalability. If you enjoy solving complex problems, optimizing workflows, and working on mission-critical systems, this role is for you! Responsibilities: Design, develop, and maintain backend services for the service using Kotlin and Java Architect scalable, resilient, and maintainable microservices using Micronaut or Spring Boot Implement workflow automation and orchestration using Temporal Optimize database interactions and performance (PostgreSQL, MySQL) Collaborate with frontend engineers, product managers, and designers to build seamless user experiences Ensure system reliability and uptime by implementing best practices in observability, logging, and monitoring Perform code reviews, contribute to best practices, and mentor junior engineers Work closely with DevOps to optimize CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure deployment Stay up-to-date with emerging technologies and drive innovation within the team Minimum Requirements: 6+ years of backend development experience with Kotlin and/or Java Experience working with Micronaut or Spring Boot frameworks Hands-on Experience in React & Next.js Strong AI coding abilities and good practices Strong understanding of microservices architectures and distributed systems Proficiency in SQL databases like PostgreSQL or MySQL Experience building high-performance, scalable backend systems Strong problem-solving skills and a passion for clean, maintainable code Solid understanding of RESTful API design and best practices Familiarity with cloud services (AWS, GCP, or Azure) Strong communication skills and ability to work in a fast-paced environment Fluency with AI engineering tools Preferred Requirements: Experience with message queues (Kafka, RabbitMQ, etc.) Exposure to GraphQL and event-driven architectures Experience in DevOps practices, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and infrastructure as code (Terraform) Background in food tech, operations, or marketplace platforms Learn More About CookUnity We believe great leadership starts with alignment on vision, values, and ways of working. To give you deeper insight into who we are and what we’re looking for, we invite you to explore: CookUnity's Leadership Principles – The values and behaviors that guide how we operate, collaborate, and scale. We hope this provides valuable insight into our culture and product vision. If this excites you, we’d love to connect! Benefits 💸 Get paid in USD 🗺 Work remotely: design the life that you want ⛱ Enjoy 15 days of vacation each year from the start date 🎄 16 fully paid Argentinean holidays 🩺 Healthcare Benefit: Monthly stipend to use in your preferred healthcare provider 🗓️ 5- year Sabbatical: After 5 years with CookUnity, you get a 4-week paid sabbatical 🐣 Paid Family leave 🕯 Compassionate Leave: 3-5 days each time the need arises 🧘🏽‍♀️ Flexible benefits, your way: a prepaid card you can use on wellness, learning, food, and more. 🤖 AI-forward workplace: enterprise access to ChatGPT and Claude to help you work smarter and grow faster. 🧑‍🏫 Personalized English coach If you’re interested in this role, please submit your application, and if we think you might be a fit, we'll get in touch with you. Thank you for your time! CookUnity is an Equal Opportunity Employer . We are dedicated to creating a community of inclusion and an environment free from discrimination or harassment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, citizenship status, protected veteran status, genetic information, or physical or mental disability. A quick note for all candidates We’ve recently seen an increase in recruitment scams across the industry, and we want to make sure you (and your data) stay safe while applying to CookUnity. We also want you to know that we take this seriously — sometimes, as part of our process, we may ask for a brief “proof of humanity” to confirm that we’re connecting with a real person, not an impersonator. Here are a few tips to help you protect yourself and know what to expect from us: Apply only through our official channels. All open roles are listed on our official careers page: careers.cookunity.com Our recruiters are real people — and easy to verify. You can always find them on LinkedIn with verified profiles. If you’re unsure, feel free to reach out to us on our official LinkedIn Company Page . We only communicate through official CookUnity channels. That means emails ending in @cookunity.com and interviews held through official company platforms (Google Meet or Zoom) — never WhatsApp, Telegram, or SMS. We’ll never ask for payment or personal financial details. If anyone does, please don’t share any information and let us know right away. If something ever feels off or you’re unsure about a message, we’d much rather you double-check with us. You can always contact us directly through any of our social media channels. We appreciate your interest in joining CookUnity — and we care about keeping your experience (and safety) as genuine as possible.