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AURORA

AI-powered premium lifestyle concierge platform

Senior Backend Engineer

Full-TimeUpdated on 10/17/2026
$100k - $170k
Senior
London, UK
HybridFrequent trips to London; the engineering team works from the London office with flexible remote days.
Software EngineeringBackend Engineering

About the job

Requirements
  • At least 5 years of experience building and operating production backend systems.
  • Strong hands-on experience with Python and Django.
  • Deep familiarity with Django and Django REST Framework, including common pitfalls.
  • Strong SQL skills and experience with schema design and performance tuning.
  • Experience with background job systems; Celery is preferred within the requirement.
  • Ability to design reliable, observable systems.
  • Experience working with large language models or artificial intelligence infrastructure.
  • Exposure to agent-based systems or retrieval-augmented generation pipelines.
  • Experience running cloud-native systems; Google Cloud Platform is preferred within the requirement.
  • Familiarity with Infrastructure as Code; Terraform is preferred within the requirement.
  • Experience operating services in production, not just building them.
  • Care about how systems are used, not just how they are built.
  • Think in terms of reliability, latency, and failure modes.
  • Comfort making trade-offs and explaining them clearly.
  • Ability to work closely with product, design, and other engineers.
  • Want to work in person near the customer.
Responsibilities
  • Design and build backend services and application programming interfaces using Python and Django.
  • Own features end to end, from initial design to production rollout.
  • Maintain and evolve background processing, agent orchestration, and large language model integrations.
  • Work with context-heavy data pipelines and retrieval-augmented generation systems.
  • Operate and improve cloud infrastructure on Google Cloud Platform.
  • Improve performance across SQL queries, background jobs, and application programming interface endpoints.
  • Debug production issues and lead incident resolution.
  • Implement secure coding practices and support compliance efforts.
  • Collaborate closely with product, curators, and frontend and mobile engineers.
  • Review code and help raise the overall technical bar.
Desired Qualifications
  • Familiarity with compliance frameworks such as SOC 2, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, and ISO 27001.
  • Basic understanding of frontend or mobile stacks such as Flutter and Vue.

About the company

Aurora Future Technologies operates a members-only AI-powered lifestyle platform for high-performers. It connects to personal data sources to proactively tailor options across dining, travel, experiences, luxury goods, and wellness, handling end-to-end bookings and payments with 24/7 support. It earns membership fees plus commissions from suppliers and offers exclusive benefits and off-market items. Its goal is to simplify and optimize complex, demanding schedules by providing a single platform for personalized experiences and wellness.

Company Size

11-50

Company Stage

Seed

Total Funding

$200K

Headquarters

New York City, New York

Founded

2025

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Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Boost Capital Partners backed Aurora's $2.5 million pre-seed in April 2025.
  • Aurora's August 2026 careers page lists growth, membership, and engineering hires across cities.
  • The September 2026 site markets Astra and 24/7 proactive service, signaling active product expansion.

What critics are saying

  • Aurora still depends on labor-heavy service, crushing margins before retention proves durable.
  • Capital One owns Velocity Black's playbook, and luxury banks can copy Aurora's concierge stack.
  • If affluent members churn, Aurora's commission-led model collapses before profitability, threatening shutdown.

What makes AURORA unique

  • Alex Macdonald built Velocity Black and now chairs Aurora's AI concierge strategy.
  • Aurora combines human operators, AI agents, and 24/7 fulfillment across five luxury categories.
  • Members pay initiation and annual fees, aligning incentives around premium service and exclusivity.

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Benefits

  • Health Insurance
  • Dental Insurance
  • Vision Insurance
  • Meal Benefits
  • Flexible Work Hours
  • Remote Work Options
  • Stock Options
  • Parental Leave
  • Professional Development Budget

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

41%

1 year growth

37%

2 year growth

71%
Fortune
Oct 11th, 2026
Aurora, an invite-only AI concierge for the ultrawealthy, charges $10,000 a year and has raised $12M

Aurora, an invite-only app that pairs AI with human experts, charges members a $10,000 annual fee plus a $5,000 initiation fee. It manages dining, travel, luxury goods, and wellness services for the ultrawealthy. Members can link their calendars and wearables such as Whoop and Oura. Aurora uses that data to anticipate needs, for example booking a sauna session or sports massage for a jet-lagged member. Cofounder and chief executive officer Jonah Lowenstein said the company has signed several hundred members in eight months, with more than half using the app daily. Aurora has raised about $12 million from VCs, family offices, and angel investors. It is preparing a Series A "very shortly," Lowenstein said, and plans features that let members plan with spouses, assistants, and friends.