Lead Backend Engineer (Baltimore)

Job Description : Role Summary

Youll be the go-to hands-on coder and architect across our CARDS technology platform This is a pure IC role (no people management) focused on building high-quality, observable, production code quickly and safely in a cloud-native stack.

What Youll Do

Hands-on Engineering :

Write production-grade, scalable backend code using Node.JS, TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, and modern frameworks.

Design and implement services Apollo GraphQL subgraph / resolvers in TypeScript / Node.

Develop APIs, services, and platform infrastructure that support credit cards acquisitions workflows flows.

Ship event-driven features (Kafka / SQS) with idempotent processing, retries, circuit breakers, and instant rollback (shadow / parallel modes).

Engineer for operations : TDD, performance / load testing, OpenTelemetry traces / metrics / logs, meaningful SLOs, and production dashboards.

Work in a code-repo with strict CI / CD, PR reviews, static analysis, and automated security scanning.

Technical Leadership & Strategy

Architect platform-level services and improve systems for resilience, observability, and extensibility.

Make high-leverage engineering decisions that balance speed, quality, and maintainability.

Raise the bar on engineering quality through hands-on contributions, design reviews, and technical mentorship.

Team Collaboration & Mentorship

Partner with product, design, operations, and other engineering teams to build solutions that deliver business value and customer impact.

Contribute to cross-functional platform efforts (e.g., onboarding, credit bureau reporting, servicing & collections APIs).

Drive alignment on technical strategy and execution, with strong written and verbal communication.

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelor\'s or Master\'s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field.

8+ years building distributed backend services; 3+ years with TypeScript / Node.js in production.

Experience with Node.JS, TypeScript, Python, PostgreSQL, AWS.

Deep experience with GraphQL (Apollo / Federation), AWS (EKS / Lambda, API Gateway, S3, KMS, IAM), and event streams (Kafka / MSK or SQS).

Proven track record shipping fast with TDD, CI / CD, feature flags, and safe migration patterns (strangler, shadow / parallel).

Solid security and compliance chops : OAuth2 / OIDC (Okta), least-privilege IAM, encryption, audit / retention.

Production observability with OTel + Grafana / Datadog / New Relic (or similar).

Experience with Docker, Kubernetes. Cloud infrastructure, Terraform and CI / CD

Deep understanding of software architecture, design patterns, and best practices for building scalable and robust applications.

Proven experience in leading and mentoring engineering teams, promoting technical excellence and collaboration.

Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively communicate technical concepts to diverse audiences.

Mandatory Skills :

Software delivery in an agile environment, Typescript, GraphQL, NodeJS, NextJS, AWS, Backlog management in JIRA