Backend Software Engineer

Key Highlights:

• Position:
  Lead Backend Engineer
• Location:
  In Office (Gurgaon)
• Experience:
  3-7 years of hands-on experience in scaling backend services. Strong preference to candidates with experience of scaling B2C apps to millions of active users
• CTC Range:
  Market‑level CTC + meaningful ESOPs (high ownership)

About Airblack & Zudo:

Airblack is India's largest alternate skilling platform, helping people become microentrepreneurs and creators. Our mission is to help the next 100 million people in the workforce get access to meaningful opportunities.

We currently operate in sectors such as beauty, fashion, nutrition, digital & home businesses, impacting over 1M learners every month. Our flagship school in the beauty space is India's #1 Beauty Academy brand, with an alumni base of over 40,000 entrepreneurs in 300+ cities in India. Our apps consistently rank in top 10 education apps in India with 1M+ users and 40M+ minutes of learning content being consumed every month.

Airblack has raised over $11 million from marquee investors such as Elevation Capital, Info Edge Ventures, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Blume Founders Fund and Better Capital, and leading angels such as Vidit (Meesho), Kunal (CRED), Deepinder (Zomato), Harshit & Shashank (Razorpay) and so on.

One of our new products, Zudo, is now India's fastest growing apps in the skilling / content space. Built with the mission of helping people get access to meaningful opportunities, it offers microcourses at Rs. 250 per month. Few numbers:

• 150 days since launch
• 3M downloads / 500K MAU / growing 100% MoM
• High repeat rates & retention rates
• Over 50,000 businesses already launched in beauty / fashion / nutrition / digital sectors

What would you be doing?

System Architecture and Performance

• Design and implement backend systems that can handle significant increases in user load without degradation in performance
• Achieve and maintain low average API response times for the vast majority of requests
• Reduce server costs through optimized resource utilization and efficient coding practices

API Development and Integration

• Develop and maintain new API endpoints regularly to support new frontend features
• Achieve and maintain high uptime for all critical APIs
• Reduce API-related bugs through comprehensive testing and documentation

Database Optimization

• Improve query performance by reducing average query execution time
• Design and implement a data archiving strategy that reduces active database size while maintaining data integrity and accessibility
• Achieve zero data loss incidents through robust backup and recovery processes

Innovation and Technology Adoption

• Successfully implement new cutting-edge technologies or architectural patterns that demonstrably improve system performance or developer productivity
• Reduce infrastructure costs through effective use of serverless and cloud-native technologies
• Increase system fault tolerance, achieving high uptime for critical services

What makes you a suitable candidate?

We're looking for a tech maestro who brings:

• 3-5 years of hands-on experience in backend development, preferably in a fast-paced startup environment
• Proficiency in at least one modern backend language (e.g., Python, , Go, Java)
• Strong command over databases (both SQL and NoSQL) and caching mechanisms
• Experience with LLMs, cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Familiarity with microservices architecture and API design principles
• A knack for writing clean, maintainable, and well-documented code
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team in an agile development environment
• Strong problem-solving skills and a never-give-up attitude when debugging complex issues
• A degree in B.Tech Computer Science from top-tier college is preferred

About the Team at Airblack

We are a lean team (under 30 members) with a high curiosity quotient and talent density. We like to partner with highly ambitious people who like to set high benchmarks for themselves, and have backed it up with actions in the past. Current management team:

• Videt: Founder; Product & Business; Ex-Elevation Capital, BCG, NSIT, 2X founder
• Vaibhav: Founder, Engineering; Ex-Goldman Sachs, IIT Roorkee CS
• Nirmal: Business & Category; Ex-Urban Company, Vedanta, IIT Madras
• Harleen: BD & Culture; Ex-Spicejet, Education Entrepreneur
• Hrishikesh: Operations, Ex-Teach for India