Principal Backend Engineer - Architect

Principal Backend Engineer | Architect

Location: Chicago, IL (Hybrid – 1 day/week in-office)
Company: Ludex, Inc.

About Ludex

Ludex is a consumer-facing technology platform transforming the sports and trading card hobby through AI-driven scanning, data, and marketplace tools. We build products used by millions of collectors and enterprise sellers, and we move fast. If you thrive in a startup environment where ownership, velocity, and impact matter, you’ll feel at home here.

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Role Overview

We are seeking a hands-on Principal Engineer to help design, build, and scale the backend systems that power Ludex’s consumer and Enterprise products. This role is ideal for an experienced engineer who enjoys building high-performance, scalable applications, working close to the product, and operating with an entrepreneurial mindset.

You will play a critical role in architecture decisions, performance optimization, and the evolution of our platform as we scale users, data volume, and revenue.

This role requires a high level of ownership and autonomy. You will be responsible for making key backend architecture decisions and driving execution in a fast-moving startup environment.

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Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable backend services using Node.js, NestJS, and TypeScript
• Build and optimize APIs that support consumer-facing products and enterprise workflows
• Design, manage, and optimize PostgreSQL databases and data models for performance and reliability
• Work with AWS infrastructure (e.g., EC2, RDS, S3, Lambda, CloudWatch, etc.)
• Collaborate closely with frontend engineers, product, and other teams to deliver end-to-end features
• Ensure high standards for code quality, efficiency, security, and performance
• Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks across services and databases
• Participate in architecture discussions and contribute to long-term technical strategy
• Support deployments, monitoring, and system reliability in production environments
• Thrive in a fast-paced startup environment, balancing speed with sound engineering judgment

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Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional backend engineering experience
• Strong proficiency with Node.js and TypeScript
• Hands-on experience with NestJS or similar backend frameworks
• Deep experience working with relational databases, particularly PostgreSQL
• Proven experience building and scaling consumer-facing applications
• Experience working with AWS in production environments
• Strong understanding of API design, data modeling, and system architecture
• Ability to write clean, efficient, maintainable, and well-tested code
• Strong ability to independently evaluate technical approaches and make architecture decisions in a startup environment.
• Proven experience owning backend systems end-to-end, including design, implementation, deployment, and ongoing evolution.
• Comfortable working in ambiguous, fast-moving environments with evolving requirements
• Strong communication skills and a collaborative mindset

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Nice to Have

• DevOps experience, including CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, or deployment automation
• Experience with system monitoring, observability, and performance tuning
• Experience supporting high-scale or data-intensive applications
• Prior startup or high-growth company experience

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Work Environment

• Hybrid role: must be able to work in-office in Chicago at least 1 day per week
• Collaborative, hands-on engineering culture
• Small team, high ownership, and real influence on product direction

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Why Ludex

• Build products used by millions of passionate collectors
• High-impact role with real ownership and visibility
• Opportunity to shape architecture and engineering standards
• Fast-moving, entrepreneurial environment without heavy bureaucracy