Senior Backend Engineer - Data Systems & Architecture

Own critical data architecture decisions in a dedicated, director-led engineering team shaping Seesaw's technology foundation. ABOUT SEESAW Seesaw helps elementary educators deliver joyful, inclusive learning experiences through interactive instruction, digital portfolios, and connections between teachers, students, and families. Our mission is to provide every elementary student with joyful and connected learning experiences that lay the foundation for success in life. YOUR TEAM You will join a small, dedicated group of senior engineers assembled specifically for one of Seesaw's most critical technology initiatives. This is not a business-as-usual maintenance assignment: the team has a focused mandate to make consequential improvements to the foundations of our production platform. The group reports directly to our Director of Platforms, who will serve as the team's engineering manager and lead the work day to day. Working closely with experienced Core Platform engineers, you'll have meaningful technical ownership, direct access to engineering leadership, and the opportunity to shape systems that support millions of educators, students, and families. Our emphasis is on thoughtful architecture, hands-on execution, and incremental delivery without compromising security or reliability. YOUR ROLE We're looking for a senior backend engineer with exceptional data modeling instincts and experience evolving data-intensive production software. You'll assess data access patterns and persistence tradeoffs, design maintainable solutions, and deliver carefully validated changes. This is a hands-on role for someone who enjoys both deep technical design and taking complex work safely into production. YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES Design and improve data models, access patterns, schemas, and data contracts for critical backend services. Evaluate data store approaches, including NoSQL, search, and relational options, in the context of application needs, performance, and operational complexity. Build reliable data evolution tooling, including schema changes, backfills, reindexing, reconciliation, validation, and safe rollback where appropriate. Improve correctness, consistency, throughput, and observability of high-volume data workflows, including multi-region replication and search index synchronization. Partner with application, infrastructure, and data engineers on data lifecycle, data classification, resilience, backup/restore, and production readiness. Lead technical investigations, document tradeoffs, write production code, and support staged releases. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR 8+ years of professional backend engineering experience with deep ownership of complex production data systems; equivalent demonstrated experience considered. Strong Python skills and experience developing production services on AWS or a comparable cloud platform. Strong NoSQL and relational fundamentals, including DynamoDB access-pattern design, relational schema design, indexing, transactions, and query optimization. Production experience with Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, or a comparable search system used as a primary application query path. Hands-on experience with schema evolution, large-scale data changes, automated verification, and operational rollbacks. Ability to balance long-term architectural quality with incremental delivery in a live SaaS system. Strong independent delivery, clear communication, and comfort owning consequential work in a small, director-led engineering team. NICE TO HAVE Hands-on experience with DynamoDB global tables, DynamoDB Streams, or comparable multi-region replication. Experience with CDC, event-driven processing, high-throughput applications, or online data migrations. Experience optimizing data infrastructure reliability, performance, or cloud cost. Experience with large-scale object storage (S3) lifecycle, reference tracking, or bulk copy/replication of binary assets. Experience with PostgreSQL or other relational production data stores. WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE Critical data workflows are easier to understand and operate; important architectural decisions are supported by evidence; and substantial production changes, including moving data between environments, are shipped safely with measurable correctness and rollback safeguards. CONTRACT ENGAGEMENT This is a senior, hands-on individual-contributor contract opportunity with a dedicated team led by the Director of Platforms. Engagement duration, location/working arrangement, and commercial terms will be discussed during recruiting. Seesaw values diverse perspectives and welcomes qualified candidates from all backgrounds. We aim to build inclusive teams that reflect the educators, students, and families we serve. Our company participates in E-Verify.