Senior Backend Software Engineer (C++ / AWS)

Requirements:

• Strong backend development experience with C++ (the bulk of the backend is built on a custom in-house framework)
• Hands-on experience with AWS, particularly S3
• Proficiency with Protobuf
• Experience deploying and operating services on Kubernetes, including performance-driven traffic routing to pods
• Performance engineering skills — hash-based routing, SSD-based caching, and memory-mapped files
• Solid systems / low-level fundamentals (there is no off-the-shelf framework to rely on — much of the stack is custom)
• Ability to work highly autonomously and drive work forward with minimal supervision
• Strong communication skills and experience working in distributed teams (Europe/Ukraine time zone; ~1–2 hours of daily overlap with a US-based team)
• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted development tools — e.g. Claude Code and Codex — including AI skills, plugins, and MCP (Model Context Protocol), with a clear understanding of how to boost personal productivity and code quality using AI tooling.

Nice-to-Have:

• Familiarity with OpenTelemetry / observability tooling
• Understanding of LevelDB SSTable concepts and sorted, time-keyed data structures
• Familiarity with Python (used only for a small metadata/auth service)
• Basic DevOps skills.

Key Responsibilities:

• Optimize the performance of the C++ data-streaming backend — efficient delivery of large recorded datasets to the browser
• Work on infrastructure-level optimizations: traffic routing to Kubernetes pods, hash-based routing, SSD-based caching, and memory-mapped files
• Operate within a custom data-handling stack — a C++ framework, a custom HTTP server, and a proprietary data format built on top of LevelDB SSTables and Protobuf
• Take ownership of performance work end-to-end, proactively identifying bottlenecks and driving solutions independently
• Collaborate with a primarily US-based team with ~1–2 hours of daily overlap, while working largely independently
• Participate in code reviews and design discussions.

About the Project:

You'll join the engineering team of a leading technology company building autonomous mobility and robotics systems. The team develops an internal data visualization platform — a "video and data player" that renders 3D scenes, lidar, and audio recorded by autonomous vehicles. This role sits on the performance work stream: the backend reads on-vehicle data stored in S3, deserializes it from a custom, time-keyed format, and streams it to the browser. The data-transfer service is implemented in C++, and most of the platform's performance gains are expected to come from the backend.

This is a long-term engagement for a strong systems engineer who enjoys low-level performance work and is comfortable ramping on a heavily custom stack with high ownership and minimal supervision.