Senior Backend Engineer

About the Role

Gameplay Galaxy is seeking a highly skilled and forward-thinking Senior Backend Engineer to lead development of our robust backend systems and the next-generation AI agentic platform that powers our live-operations ecosystem. In this role, you will hold ultimate ownership over feature releases, monetization mechanics, real-time matchmaking, live-ops architectures, and our high-throughput analytics pipelines for an active mobile free-to-play (F2P) game. As a Senior Individual Contributor (IC) stepping into our remote-first, fast-growing studio, you will enjoy deep technical autonomy from day one and a clear career path toward a platform or tech lead position as we scale our global player base. Our production systems serve hundreds of thousands of active players and drive real, tangible revenue, meaning your contributions will instantly make an impact on real-world systems.

• Own the backend lifecycle of our live mobile PvP game, including the design, implementation, and maintenance of features, live-ops engines, and monetization mechanics.
• Architect and scale our game backend services, which include high-performance REST APIs, real-time multiplayer systems via Socket.io, analytics ingestion pipelines, and distributed cron services�all housed within a streamlined TypeScript monorepo.
• Design, develop, and scale our state-of-the-art AI agent platform, implementing MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers in Go to act as bridges between advanced Large Language Models (LLMs) and our database systems.
• Implement external integrations with key third-party platforms such as Slack, Discord, GitLab, Meta Ads, Google Ads, AppLovin, and the Apple App Store / Google Play Store APIs.
• Manage intelligent LLM routing patterns across world-class models, including Anthropic Claude, OpenAI, and DashScope, to drive autonomous workflows and developer-facing AI tooling.
• Ensure system reliability, low-latency performance, and continuous production support for our active PvP gaming environment.
• Actively collaborate with AI coding assistants (such as Claude agents) in writing, testing, and optimizing production-grade code as part of our core development workflow.

• At least 5+ years of professional backend software engineering experience, with a proven track record of shipping and operating complex, consumer-facing production services at scale.
• Exceptional proficiency in TypeScript and Node.js (specifically Fastify) in high-throughput production environments.
• Strong production experience with MongoDB, with deep knowledge of replica sets, high-performance aggregation pipelines, and transaction patterns.
• Familiarity or production experience with ClickHouse for analytical queries, materialized views, and processing multi-million-row joins at scale.
• Hands-on experience managing Kubernetes in production, specifically deploying k3s clusters on GCP via Helmfile and GitLab CI/CD pipelines.
• Comfort with reading and extending stdlib net/http services in Go, specifically around developing model context servers or networking applications.
• Prior experience working with asynchronous messaging brokers (e.g., RabbitMQ, Kafka) and implementing OAuth, JWT, and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC).
• Familiarity with mobile gaming concepts, such as live-ops pipelines, A/B testing infrastructure, in-app purchase (IAP) validation, and App Store/Google Play APIs.
• Bonus points for knowledge of F2P economy design, agentic systems, Model Context Protocol (mark3labs/mcp-go), or autonomous workflow backgrounds.

• Competitive compensation package, with an estimated salary ranging between $60,000 and $80,000 per year, depending on your experience and skill level.
• Fully remote work culture, allowing you to build from the comfort of your own home from anywhere in Europe or equivalent time zones.
• Substantial technical ownership and rapid career progression opportunities towards a platform or tech lead role as we scale.
• The opportunity to work with cutting-edge tech stacks, including modern AI engineering patterns, LLM orchestration, and advanced database architectures.
• A collaborative, high-performing team environment that embraces AI tooling to accelerate productivity and minimize boilerplate development.

Required Skills