Senior Backend Engineer (TypeScript / Web3)
About the role
Startale | Senior Backend Engineer (TypeScript / Web3)
Japan; Remote; Singapore
Full Time
Senior Backend Engineer (TypeScript / Web3)
About Us
In partnership with
Sony and SBI
- two of Japan's largest companies — we are building the infrastructure to bring the world's assets on-chain:
Strium
, a next-generation DeFi L1 powered by a fully on-chain orderbook exchange, and
Startale App
, a consumer super-app. Distributed across Tokyo, New York, and Singapore; English-operating; built to a world-class standard.
About the Role
We are looking for a
Senior Backend Engineer
to take ownership of the backend systems powering
StartaleApp
and other products across the Startale ecosystem.
This is a
senior, hands-on engineering role
for someone who can own
complex backend systems end-to-end
- from designing APIs and backend services, to building scalable data pipelines, managing databases, integrating blockchain infrastructure, and operating production systems under real-world load.
We are looking for an engineer who thrives in a
startup environment
and is comfortable taking responsibility for
any part of the backend stack
depending on what the product needs. One month you may be building user-facing APIs, another month designing blockchain indexers, optimizing database performance, improving system reliability, or architecting entirely new backend services from scratch.
Most importantly, we are looking for someone who has
previously built and operated large-scale production systems serving real users at meaningful scale
. You should have firsthand experience designing systems that handle high traffic, large datasets, reliability challenges, and the operational complexity that comes with running critical backend infrastructure in production.
You should be excited by solving difficult engineering problems, building systems that scale, and owning critical infrastructure with a high degree of autonomy. You will take ownership of live production systems from your first weeks. This role assumes prior hands-on Web3 backend experience — we are not looking for someone to learn the Web3 side on the job.
You will work closely with product, infrastructure, and protocol teams to build reliable systems that power seamless user experiences across both traditional and blockchain-based applications.
Because our core product is a Web3 wallet, we highly value engineers who understand how decentralized applications work in practice — not just at the protocol level, but also from the perspective of real-world user interactions with wallets, DeFi protocols, and blockchain-based financial systems.
Key Responsibilities
Take ownership of backend architecture and implementation across multiple products within the Startale ecosystem.
Design, build, and maintain
scalable production APIs and backend services
used by customer-facing applications.
Build and operate
high-performance distributed systems
capable of serving large user bases and handling significant production traffic reliably.
Design backend systems with strong focus on
scalability, fault tolerance, reliability, and long-term maintainability
.
Build and maintain
data pipelines, background workers, asynchronous processing systems, and event-driven architectures
.
Build and maintain
blockchain integrations and indexing systems
that ingest, process, and serve on-chain data to internal services and user-facing applications.
Design efficient database schemas, optimize complex queries, and ensure long-term scalability of data storage systems.
Work across both
Web2 and Web3 backend infrastructure
, integrating traditional backend systems with blockchain protocols and decentralized infrastructure.
Diagnose and solve complex production issues, performance bottlenecks, reliability problems, and scaling challenges.
Build systems with strong observability, monitoring, alerting, and operational tooling.
Continuously improve backend architecture, deployment pipelines, system reliability, and engineering practices.
Move quickly, make sound technical decisions independently, and take ownership of delivering production-ready systems.
Requirements
Core Backend Engineering
Extensive experience building and operating
production backend systems
in modern engineering environments.
Strong proficiency in
TypeScript
and modern backend frameworks (
NestJS, Fastify, Express
, or similar).
Strong understanding of backend architecture, API design, service-oriented architecture, and distributed systems design.
Ability to independently design and deliver complex backend systems with minimal oversight.
Large-Scale Systems Experience
Proven track record building and operating backend systems serving large numbers of users in production environments.
Experience designing systems that operate reliably under
high traffic, heavy workloads, and demanding production conditions
.
Strong understanding of performance optimization, scalability bottlenecks, concurrency, fault tolerance, and infrastructure reliability.
Experience operating systems where uptime, consistency, and reliability directly impact end users.
Strong operational mindset and experience handling production incidents and scaling challenges in live systems.
Data & Infrastructure
Deep expertise with
PostgreSQL
, including schema design, indexing, query optimization, migrations, and production database management.
Experience building systems that process large amounts of structured or event-driven data.
Strong understanding of observability, logging, monitoring, and service health management.
Web2 + Web3 Engineering
Experience building backend systems for modern
Web2 applications
.
Experience integrating with
blockchain infrastructure
, node APIs, smart contracts, or decentralized protocols.
Hands-on experience building or operating blockchain indexing systems, event processing pipelines, or other on-chain data infrastructure (e.g. The Graph, Subsquid, or custom indexers).
Good understanding of
wallet architecture
, transaction lifecycle, signing flows, and blockchain data models.
Experience building or integrating backend systems that interact with DeFi protocols.
Strong Plus
Experience building backend services in
Go
.
Experience with
Kafka, NATS, RabbitMQ
, or similar messaging systems.
Experience deploying and operating services using
Docker
and modern CI/CD pipelines.
Contributions to open-source backend, infrastructure, or blockchain tooling projects.
Strong understanding of the
DeFi ecosystem
and hands-on familiarity with products such as decentralized exchanges, lending protocols, staking systems, bridges, or other on-chain financial infrastructure.
What We Value
We care less about specific technologies and more about engineers who can
Take ownership of complex technical problems from design to production.
Work comfortably across different parts of the backend stack depending on what the product needs.
Build systems that reliably serve large numbers of users and continue operating under scale and production pressure.
Make pragmatic engineering decisions in fast-moving startup environments.
Ramp up fast on an existing codebase and deliver in production within weeks.
Learn unfamiliar technologies quickly and adapt to changing product requirements.
Why Join Us
Build the core infrastructure powering StartaleApp and the broader Startale ecosystem.
Work on technically challenging problems spanning
backend engineering, distributed systems, and Web3 infrastructure
.
Join a highly technical startup environment where engineers have significant ownership and direct product impact.
Work alongside world-class engineers building ambitious next-generation infrastructure.
Competitive compensation, ownership opportunities, and a direct role in shaping the future of Web3 products.
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