Senior Backend Developer / Team Lead
8-week sprint contract · milestones every 14 days · path to full-time
Contract to Full-time
Remote
Leadership Role
Step 1: Skills Challenge
Backend Skills Test
Node.js, PostgreSQL, APIs • 45 minutes • 70% to pass
Complete our coding challenge to demonstrate your backend skills. Only candidates who score ≥70% will proceed to the next stage. The test covers Node.js, PostgreSQL, REST APIs, and system architecture.
Note: You must pass the skills challenge before we can review your application.
Why This Role Exists
BauPlan is building large-scale autonomous digital platforms for enterprise clients. We need an architect-level engineer who can design the multi-tenant core, lead a small squad, and ship production code fast.
What You'll Own
| Time | Deliverable |
|---|---|
40% | Platform & DB architecture (Postgres multitenancy, Redis caching, service boundaries, infra diagrams) |
25% | Core APIs (user/accounts, platform lifecycle, role/permission matrix, dynamic pricing & profit-share logic) |
15% | Security & compliance (OAuth2/JWT, rate limiting, GDPR data flows, audit logging) |
10% | Tech leadership (code reviews, pairing, sprint planning, unblock devs, uphold code quality) |
10% | Performance & observability (query tuning, cache strategy, metrics dashboards, load testing) |
Required Technical Chops
Languages:
- Node.js + TypeScript
- Go
- Python
Data:
- PostgreSQL (schema design, indexing)
- Redis (sessions, queues)
APIs:
- REST best-practices
- GraphQL (nice-to-have)
Auth:
- OAuth2, JWT, social logins
Cloud:
- AWS, Vercel, Railway, or similar
Tooling:
- GitHub Flow, CI/CD pipelines, automated tests
Experience Profile
- 5+ yrs building production back-end services
- 2+ yrs leading a small dev team (sprints, mentoring, reviews)
- Marketplace, event-tech or payments domain exposure
- Proven record of shipping at start-up pace (zero-to-one)
Culture & Soft Skills
- Opinionated about architecture, pragmatic about deadlines
- Communicates clearly async (most of the team is remote)
- "Whatever needs to be done" mindset—thrives on ownership: design it, build it, run it
Sprint & Contract Rules
8-week contract broken into four 14-day sprints
Milestone check-in every sprint demo
Fail any sprint target → contract ends
Achieve all sprint results → immediate full-time offer
1Complete the skills challenge above (≥70% required)
2Send CV + GitHub + two lines on your hardest multi-tenant challenge to kevin@bauplan.com.au
Subject line: "Team Lead – Your Name"