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Novakid is an online English platform for kids — 100,000+ students, 2,500+ teachers, 15+ countries. Live classes run around the clock across time zones, which sets the technical bar: low latency, high availability, and a backend that holds up at real scale.
We’ve built a working platform. The next chapter is making deliberate architectural choices about how it should evolve.
The role
We’re hiring a Principal Backend Engineer to take ownership of backend architecture as a hands-on technical leader. No direct reports. About half your time is in the code — reference implementations, critical components, refactors. The other half is the harder work: deciding what to build, what to buy, what to defer, and why.
Our backend today is a Python core (FastAPI, SQLAlchemy, Celery, Postgres, Redis), surrounded by services and event-driven flows, with a growing AI layer. It runs primarily on AWS, with GCP for data and AI workloads. There are real architectural questions to answer: how to evolve the monolith, how to set service boundaries, how to design for geo-distribution as we grow, and how to integrate AI without accumulating debt. We’re looking for someone who treats those questions seriously — researches before deciding, thinks in tradeoffs, writes things down.
What you’ll work on
What we’re looking for
Nice to have
Stack
Python · FastAPI · SQLAlchemy · Celery · Postgres · Redis · Kubernetes (EKS, GKE) · AWS · GCP · SQS/SNS/EventBridge · Pub/Sub · OpenAI · Anthropic · Google AI
What we offer…
from 7 years
Experience
Full-time
Employment
Remote
Work Format
Lead
Grade
B2 - Upper-Intermediate
English Level
Backend
Specialization
EdTech
Industry
Product company
Company Type
By city
B2 - Upper-Intermediate
English Level
Backend
Specialization
EdTech
Industry
Product company
Company Type