Senior Backend Engineer

Job Description Roles & Responsibilities Praktika is an AI-native education company on a mission to deliver efficient, engaging language learning to billions of people worldwide. We're bridging the gap between traditional learning apps and human tutors through a fully automated tutorship experience powered by generative AI avatars. Since launching our mobile apps in 2023, we've grown to over 2 million monthly active users, become one of the world's top-4 learning apps, and recently closed a $30M Series A to accelerate our roadmap. We're a fully distributed team of ~50 people across 4 continents and 15+ countries, working asynchronously to ship fast and operate at a high bar. We are looking for an experienced Senior Backend Engineer with a strong background in Python, FastAPI, distributed services architecture. Candidates must have a proven track record of leading B2C / Consumer projects and innovation in AI/LLM space. In this role, you will be owning projects from 0 to 100, improving Learning, Audio, Visual and Core User Experience. What You'll Do Design, develop, integrate, validate and operate new projects, features, bug fixes and other improvements. Architect and implement backend solutions with Python (FastAPI, asyncio), Databases (PostgreSQL, MongoDB), Cache layers (Redis, Valkey), Message Brokers (Kafka, Redis Queues, Amazon SQS) and transport protocols (Rest APIs, Websockets, SSE, WebRTC with LiveKit). Work with teams directly: Mobile (Swift, Flutter), Web (React, Javascript), Data Analyst, Product, Designers on integrating new solutions. Develop well-architected, clean, maintainable, and testable code following clean architecture principles and ADRs agreed within the company. Write unit, integration, e2e tests to comprehensively own the quality of solutions you build, ensure reliability and support continuous integration and deployment. Utilize Terraform for Infrastructure-as-Code management, Docker for containerization and AWS ECS or EKS for deployments. Work with AWS infrastructure and apply DevOps best practices to improve scalability and reliability. Continuously improve processes and automate incoming requests from other teams by contributing to internal systems, automation scripts, shared skills, MCP, context and script libraries. Work closely with AI experts to build data-driven approaches to language learning. How we work High-velocity: Rapid experimentation, lean autonomous teams, and minimal bureaucracy. Get things done: We commit and deliver whatever it takes in 1-week cycles. No handovers, no it s not my job AI first: We use AI to move faster with higher-quality results. We do this across the whole company from engineering to growth to operations. Excellence everywhere: Everything we do should match the highest technical and product quality. Desired Candidate Profile What We're Looking For Proven track record of leading B2C / Consumer-facing projects and measured impact on customers and business. 8+ years of backend development experience with strong Python expertise. Proven experience with ASGI frameworks such as FastAPI, Starlette, or similar technologies. Experience with SQLAlchemy or other ORM technologies. Strong knowledge of designing, maintaining, and optimizing both PostgreSQL and MongoDB. Experience with microservices and event-driven architectures, including system design and architecture skills. Solid understanding of clean architecture principles and writing highly testable code. Familiarity with Docker and containerized environments. AWS infrastructure and DevOps experience is a significant plus. Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to work independently in a fast-paced startup environment. Excellent written and spoken English. Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field is a plus. Genuine passion for education technology and AI. Company Industry IT - Software Services Department / Functional Area IT Software Keywords Senior Backend Engineer Get real-time job updates only on our App