Job Title: Principal Backend Engineer (Ruby on Rails)
Location: Remote (PST time zone work hours)
Type: Full-Time

The Role

We’re looking for a seasoned Principal Backend Engineer to join our growing team. You’ll play a critical role in refactoring and enhancing our legacy applications, supporting infrastructure, and helping to shape future technical decisions.

You’ll collaborate with a small, focused product and engineering team to build and maintain applications used by hundreds of thousands of users. If you’ve built and scaled customer-facing platforms and can dive into a codebase and quickly find and implement improvements, we’d love to meet you.

Key Responsibilities

Refactor and maintain core backend systems powering the Homeroom platform.
Analyze the current codebase and implement scalable, high-performance improvements.
Collaborate with product and engineering teams to deliver new backend features and services.
Monitor and improve server performance, uptime, and overall application health.
Own the delivery of robust backend logic from concept through production.
Contribute to architectural conversations with a pragmatic, hands-on mindset.

Key Requirements

7+ years of backend development experience, with deep expertise in Ruby on Rails.
Proven experience with Heroku and PostgreSQL in a production environment.
Track record of building and maintaining large-scale, customer-facing applications.
Strong understanding of server-side technologies, backend performance, and application architecture.
Experience implementing major code refactors or migrating legacy systems.
Ability to ramp up quickly on existing codebases and suggest high-impact changes.
Comfortable working independently and driving projects to completion.
Fluent English communication skills required.
Availability for full PST timezone overlap during the first month (more flexibility afterward).

Nice to Have

Familiarity with frontend frameworks or full-stack development is a bonus.
Experience working in a startup or growth-stage environment.
Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and observability tools.

Why Join

Remote-first team with a collaborative, ownership-driven culture.
Opportunity to make a significant impact on a high-growth product.
Competitive compensation with flexibility for top-tier talent.
Work with a product used by thousands of people daily.

Application Process

Technical assessment (developed by team).
Live technical interview with engineering team.
Cultural fit conversation.

Senior Principal Back End Engineer