We are looking for a Senior Go Backend Engineer to build the backend foundation for a new real-time transportation product.
The platform will ingest shuttle location and operational data from third-party webhooks and APIs, validate and store it in PostgreSQL on AWS, and expose it through APIs that power a live vehicle-tracking map.
This is a hands-on delivery role. You will work closely with product and engineering to make pragmatic architectural decisions, build and deploy the core services, and leave the system production-ready, well tested, and documented for continued development.
The ideal contractor can ramp up quickly, work independently, and communicate decisions, progress, risks, and blockers clearly.
Primary focus: Backend architecture and implementation
Core technologies: Go, PostgreSQL, PostGIS, REST APIs, webhooks, and AWS
Key Responsibilities
Backend Development and Integrations
- Design and build production-quality backend services in Go.
- Develop REST APIs for vehicle, route, location, and operational data, with clear contracts for the frontend application.
- Build secure webhook endpoints to ingest data from external transportation systems.
- Validate, normalize, and persist incoming events, with appropriate authentication, authorization, and input validation.
- Ensure webhook processing is idempotent and resilient to duplicate, delayed, or out-of-order events.
- Handle retries, failures, rate limits, and malformed third-party payloads.
- Enable real-time or near-real-time vehicle updates using WebSockets, Server-Sent Events, polling, or another agreed approach.
Data Architecture
- Design PostgreSQL schemas for vehicles, locations, routes, events, and related operational data.
- Build efficient queries for current and historical vehicle locations.
- Model geospatial data using PostgreSQL and PostGIS where appropriate.
- Evaluate whether queues or asynchronous processing are needed for the initial product.
AWS Deployment and Reliability
- Deploy and operate the backend within AWS using the appropriate services, including RDS, ECS/Fargate, Lambda, API Gateway, SQS, and CloudWatch.
- Configure logging, metrics, health checks, and basic alerting.
- Establish secure credential and application-secret management.
- Create repeatable deployments using the existing CI/CD and infrastructure tooling.
- Investigate and resolve integration or production issues during the engagement.
Product Delivery and Handoff
- Partner with the product manager to clarify requirements, prioritize the scope, and translate product needs into pragmatic technical solutions.
- Identify technical risks, unknowns, and external integration dependencies early.
- Deliver incrementally so product and engineering teams can test and provide feedback.
- Collaborate with frontend engineers on API contracts and real-time update behavior.
- Write automated unit and integration tests for all delivered functionality.
- Document the architecture, APIs, webhook behavior, deployment process, operational procedures, known limitations, and recommended next steps.
- Provide clear local development and testing instructions.
- Conduct a technical handoff with the internal engineering team before the engagement ends.
Expected Outcomes
- A production-ready Go service structure.
- Secure webhook ingestion for the initial external data provider.
- Reliable validation and persistence of vehicle-location events.
- A PostgreSQL schema supporting current and historical location data.
- The APIs required for the frontend’s real-time vehicle map.
- An agreed real-time update mechanism using WebSockets, Server-Sent Events, polling, or another suitable approach.
- Deployment to the appropriate AWS environment.
- Automated tests, observability, and operational documentation.
- Strong professional experience building production backend services in Go.
- Experience designing and delivering REST APIs and third-party webhook integrations.
- Strong PostgreSQL and relational data-modelling skills.
- Experience deploying and operating applications in AWS.
- Understanding of concurrent, asynchronous, and event-driven processing.
- Experience implementing idempotency, retries, and failure handling.
- Strong automated testing and debugging skills.
- Familiarity with CI/CD and modern software-delivery practices.
- Ability to work independently, take ownership, and deliver effectively.
- Clear written and verbal communication skills.
- Experience collaborating with product and frontend teams.
Nice to Have
- Experience with real-time location, fleet, transportation, or telemetry systems.
- Experience with geospatial data and PostGIS.
- Experience implementing WebSockets or Server-Sent Events.
- Experience with ECS/Fargate, RDS, SQS, Lambda, API Gateway, and CloudWatch.
- Experience designing systems that process high-frequency webhook events.
- Experience with Terraform or Terragrunt.
- Familiarity with distributed tracing and production observability.
- Experience taking an early-stage product from architecture through its initial production release.
How You’ll Be Successful
- Passion for Impact: Understand how your work contributes to innovation, operational excellence, and client success.
- Challenge the Expected: Approach problems with curiosity and creativity, learning from experimentation and driving smarter solutions.
- Integrity and Respect: Lead with empathy, listen actively, and take responsibility for outcomes.
- Commitment to Quality: Set and uphold high standards; seek feedback and continuous improvement.
- Collaborative Mindset: Build strong partnerships, share knowledge, and contribute to shared goals.
- Customer-Centered Thinking: Listen deeply, understand needs, and translate them into meaningful business outcomes.