Product & Platform
/Individual contributor at the frontier
Senior Backend Engineer — TypeScript
Backend / API
Compensation
INR 25 - 45 LPA + equity.
Engagement
Full-Time
Permanent role. Full-time commitment. Remote-first, with periodic in-person off-sites.
Scope of role
Own complex problems end-to-end. Set technical direction. Mentor mid and junior teammates.
01 — The role
Why this role exists at EduRankAI
Own the backend that powers the applicant portal, payment flows, AquinTutor, admin tooling. Postgres, Drizzle, Astro SSR. Real money flows through the systems you write; real applicants depend on them being fast and correct. You will set the bar for what a "good" backend service looks like at EduRankAI — schema design, migrations, observability, tests — and you will mentor the mid and junior backend engineers into that bar.
02 — The work
What you will own
- 01 Build and own production APIs (auth, payments, applications, admin).
- 02 Design the data model for new features; defend it in design review.
- 03 Own migrations and database performance — query planning, indexes, locking, deadlocks.
- 04 Build the payment / billing surface (Razorpay) end-to-end.
- 05 Drive code review across backend; be the bar.
- 06 Own the observability and tracing stack — make on-call cheaper for everyone.
03 — The expertise
What we look for
04 — The bar
Who thrives here
- → You have owned at least one production Postgres database in a system with real users.
- → You have shipped at least one payment integration that has handled real money for 12+ months.
- → You can describe a specific database query you optimised by writing the EXPLAIN ANALYZE.
- → You write your own migrations and you have a strong opinion about reversibility.
- → You write integration tests for the hard cases without being asked to.
05 — How we work
The EduRankAI environment
Remote-first, async-first
Work from anywhere. We optimise for deep work, not face time. Periodic in-person off-sites for the full-time team.
High autonomy, high standards
We hire adults and trust them. You will be expected to set your own goals, communicate clearly, and ship.
Builders, not bureaucrats
We optimise for clarity over process. Make the call, ship the work, write up what you learned.
Bharat-built, globally ambitious
We are an Indian frontier AI lab. We build for India first and the world second — in that order.
06 — Hiring process
What to expect after you apply
- 01
Application review
Every application is read personally within five business days. We respond either way.
- 02
Take-home or live exercise
Role-specific. Time-boxed. Real problems we are actually working on, not invented puzzles.
- 03
Conversations
Deep technical and values conversations with the team you would join. No trick questions. No panel ambushes.
- 04
Offer or honest no
If yes: digital offer letter, signed in-portal, transparent terms. If no: written feedback if you want it.
Before you start
What we will collect. What it costs. What we will not do with it.
Application fee
CHF 10
Senior tier
We will collect
- Name, email, phone — Account + application updates. No marketing.
- Resume / portfolio link — Human review of your work.
- Date + place of birth — Identity verification only.
- Your written responses — Selection rubric. Read by humans.
- Government ID (later) — Anti-fraud at offer / interview stage. Not at signup.
We will never
- Sell your data
- Share with third-party recruiters
- Use for advertising
- Train models on it
- Send marketing email
Our situation
EduRankAI is a small, independent organization building long-term capabilities in educational intelligence, advanced AI systems, and research infrastructure. We take no advertiser money, no donations with strings attached, and no investor pressure on hiring decisions. The small per-application fee covers the real cost of processing your application — human review, identity verification, infrastructure, reviewer time. It buys us the right to be honest. Genuine financial hardship? Request a fee waiver inside the application — reviewed individually within 5 business days, with no record in your file and no second-class treatment of waiver-granted applications.
Ready to apply?
We read every application personally. If you are the right person for this role — regardless of pedigree, background, or where you are based — you will hear back from us within five business days.
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