Senior Backend Data Engineer

About Right Balance

Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Right Balance provides top-tier technology talent for innovative companies in the US. We’re in the top 50 companies to watch in LA.

Client Engagement Overview

Our client is a Series A, San Francisco–based startup building a cloud-based platform that helps brands connect more effectively with retailers, frontline employees, and customers. The product combines sales gamification, real-time analytics, and performance insights to drive revenue and improve in-store execution.

The platform enables brands to directly reward frontline staff for the sales they generate through cash-based commissions, contests, and goals. The result: higher brand revenue, better employee performance for retailers, and fair, performance-driven compensation for frontline workers globally.

The company has raised $17.8M in funding and continues to scale its analytics and engagement ecosystem across retail environments.

The Role of a Senior Backend Data Engineer

We are seeking a highly skilled Senior Backend Data Engineer to join our growing team. In this role, you will be responsible for designing, building, and operating scalable data pipelines and analytics infrastructure that power our reporting, dashboards, and data products. You will work closely with product, analytics, and engineering teams to ensure reliable, high-quality data is available across the platform.

Key Responsibilities

• Platform Development: Design, develop, and maintain scalable and robust backend systems using Node.js.
• Infrastructure as Code: Define and manage cloud infrastructure programmatically to ensure environments are scalable, repeatable, and easy to evolve.
• Data Engineering: Perform data engineering tasks, including data ingestion, transformation, and analysis to support data-driven decision-making.
• Data Ingestion: Design scalable batch and event-driven data pipelines using appropriate tools (e.g., Spark, SQL-based transformations, or serverless compute), choosing the right approach for each use case.
• Data Warehouse: Design and operate scalable analytical and operational data stores (e.g., lakehouse or warehouse systems), ensuring correctness, performance, and cost efficiency.
• Collaboration: Work closely with cross-functional teams, including product, data science, and front-end development, to deliver high-quality solutions.
• Best Practices: Advocate and implement best practices in code quality, testing, and deployment processes to ensure the robustness and reliability of the platform.

What Right Balance Offers

Fast-paced, innovative startup environment. High-impact work on core data systems. Opportunities for growth and ownership. Competitive compensation and benefits.

What’s in it for you?

• Learn and evolve your skills using the latest and greatest technology tools in a rapidly growing company.
• Learn from the best people around you. We constantly challenge the status quo and invent new ways of building a great product.
• 100% remote in LATAM. Work anywhere, whether it is remotely in the comfort of your home, in a shared co-working space, in an RV on the beach, or while being a nomad in another country.
• Work on challenging problems, innovate, and positively impact many people's lives while having fun doing it.

Required Qualifications

• Upper-intermediate to fluent speaking and writing English. Able to have a real-time conversation.
• 5+ years of full-time hands-on Data Engineering experience.
• 4+ years of full-time hands-on Node.js experience.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in software development, with a focus on backend engineering.
• Proficiency in at least one modern object-oriented programming language (e.g., Python, Java, TypeScript), with the ability to ramp quickly on Node.js.
• Strong experience with AWS services, particularly AWS Lambda, S3, Glue, and Step Functions for building scalable, serverless data pipelines.
• Familiarity with infrastructure as code tools, preferably Pulumi.
• Experience with data engineering and building data pipelines.
• Experience with Databricks is preferred.
• Problem-Solving: Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to troubleshoot complex issues.
• Collaboration: Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively in a team environment.

Nice to Haves

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent demonstrated ability.

Key skills/competency

• Data Pipeline
• Backend Engineering
• Node.js
• AWS Services
• Infrastructure as Code
• Data Ingestion
• Data Transformation
• SQL
• Databricks
• Scalability