Backend API Developer

About Acelab

Our mission at Acelab is to transform how the building industry makes material decisions. We've created a comprehensive platform that connects architects with the right materials for their projects because we believe materials are fundamental to transforming inspired designs into exceptional buildings.

At the heart of our mission is the understanding that material choices shape aesthetics, performance, sustainability, and ultimately, the human experience of built spaces. We recognize that architects face overwhelming challenges in navigating hundreds of thousands of products while trying to capture and maintain their firm's collective material expertise.

Through our Material Hub platform, we aim to:

• Empower architects to make material choices that truly matter
• Provide easier access to innovative products and collective knowledge
• Elevate not just individual buildings but the entire built environment
• Create a shared language for materials that enables seamless communication between architects, manufacturers, contractors, and clients
• Preserve institutional knowledge within architecture firms
• Streamline the material selection and specification process

Our mission statement "Because Materials Matter" encapsulates our commitment to elevating material selection from a fragmented, time-consuming process to a strategic aspect of architectural excellence. By connecting the industry's deepest technical database with material decision-making workflow tools, we're working to ensure that every project benefits from better informed material decisions.

About the Role

We are seeking a Senior Backend Developer to design and build robust, scalable APIs that power our Material Hub platform. You'll work with modern .NET technologies to create high-performance services that handle complex material data, enable seamless search and discovery, and support thousands of architects in their daily workflows. This role combines deep technical expertise with product thinking, as you'll architect systems that transform massive material databases into actionable insights.

The Work You'll Do

• API Development: Design and implement RESTful APIs using .NET 9 that provide fast, reliable access to our comprehensive material database and power frontend applications
• Database Architecture: Build and optimize PostgreSQL database schemas, queries, and indexing strategies to support complex search, filtering, and relationship queries across hundreds of thousands of materials
• System Integration: Create integrations with third-party services, data pipelines, and AI-powered enrichment systems to enhance material information
• Performance Optimization: Profile and optimize API endpoints, database queries, and caching strategies to ensure sub-second response times even with large datasets
• Data Modeling: Design clean domain models and data structures that represent complex material specifications, project workflows, and user interactions
• Technical Leadership: Establish backend architecture patterns, conduct code reviews, and mentor team members on best practices for API design and database optimization.

Requirements

Required Qualifications
Technical Skills

• Expert-level C# and .NET development with proven experience building production APIs in .NET 6+ (ideally .NET 8 or 9)
• ASP.NET Core Web API development including middleware, filters, routing, and dependency injection
• Advanced PostgreSQL skills including query optimization, indexing strategies, and performance tuning
• Entity Framework Core or Dapper for data access with understanding of best practices and performance considerations
• API Design: Strong understanding of REST principles, versioning strategies, and API documentation (OpenAPI/Swagger)
• Authentication & Authorization: Experience implementing JWT, OAuth 2.0, or similar authentication patterns
• Testing: Proficiency with xUnit, NUnit, or similar testing frameworks for unit and integration testing
• Version Control: Strong Git workflow practices with experience in collaborative development environments

Professional Competencies

• Architectural Thinking: Ability to design scalable, maintainable systems that balance immediate needs with long-term flexibility
• Performance Mindset: Track record of building high-performance APIs with attention to response times, throughput, and resource efficiency
• Problem Solving: Strategic approach to complex technical challenges with ability to evaluate tradeoffs and make pragmatic decisions
• Collaborative Communication: Excellent communication skills for working across frontend, data engineering, and product teams
• Ownership: Self-motivated with proven ability to take projects from design through production deployment and maintenance

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with vector databases and similarity search (pgvector extension for PostgreSQL)
• Familiarity with message queues and event-driven architectures (RabbitMQ, Azure Service Bus, or similar)
• Experience with caching strategies using Redis or similar in-memory data stores
• Knowledge of GraphQL API development with Hot Chocolate or similar frameworks
• Experience with Google Cloud Platform (Cloud Run, Cloud SQL, Pub/Sub) or other major cloud platforms
• Docker containerization and experience with container orchestration
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and automated deployment practices
• Experience with background job processing (Hangfire, Quartz.NET, or similar)
• Knowledge of search engines (Elasticsearch, Meilisearch) for full-text search implementation
• Experience working with large-scale data imports and ETL processes
• Background in B2B SaaS or tools for professionals
• Interest in or experience with the AEC (Architecture, Engineering, Construction) industry

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain RESTful APIs that serve Material Hub frontend applications and potential integration partners
• Build and optimize PostgreSQL database schemas, stored procedures, and queries for performance and scalability
• Implement comprehensive error handling, logging, and monitoring for production API services
• Create and maintain API documentation using OpenAPI/Swagger specifications
• Develop data validation and business logic layers that ensure data integrity and consistency
• Collaborate with frontend developers to define API contracts and data structures
• Work with data engineering team to integrate AI-enriched material data into the platform
• Participate in code reviews and provide constructive feedback to team members
• Monitor API performance metrics and proactively address bottlenecks or issues
• Contribute to technical planning and architecture decisions for backend services
• Implement security best practices including input validation, SQL injection prevention, and secure authentication

Benefits

Impact & Growth Opportunity

Build Critical Infrastructure: Your APIs will be the foundation that enables architects to efficiently discover and manage building materials for their projects

Shape Data Architecture: Influence how we model and store complex material specifications, relationships, and user workflows

Scale Challenges: Work on performance optimization problems as the platform handles growing datasets and user bases

Modern Technology: Work with the latest .NET technologies and best practices, with opportunities to evaluate and adopt new tools

Cross-Team Collaboration: Partner with frontend, data engineering, and AI teams to deliver cohesive features from backend to UI

Domain Expertise: Develop deep knowledge of material specifications and architecture industry workflows, becoming an expert in translating complex requirements into elegant technical solutions

Join us in building the future of how the architecture industry discovers, evaluates, and specifies building materials.

---