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Conntour is a defense-tech startup building next-generation autonomous systems that connect distributed camera networks, AI models, and natural-language interfaces to deliver mission-critical insights in real time. The platform protects sensitive sites for private and government agencies and is backed by top-tier Silicon Valley investors including Y Combinator, General Catalyst, and SV Angel.
As a Senior Backend Engineer, you'll be one of the first engineers shaping the platform's foundation. This is a hands-on role designing and building high-scale, performance-critical backend systems that power real-time video and AI-driven workflows in high-stakes environments. You'll own backend architecture decisions across APIs, databases, infrastructure, observability, and deployment from the ground up.
Key responsibilities include:
- Design, build, and own high-performance backend services for real-time, mission-critical systems
- Develop scalable data pipelines for camera networks, video streams, AI/ML outputs, and operational insights
- Build systems optimized for low latency, high throughput, reliability, and resilience
- Own backend architecture decisions and set engineering standards
- Work closely with ML, product, frontend, and design teams to translate complex AI outputs into reliable product experiences
- Build and maintain production infrastructure using Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD, monitoring, and modern DevOps practices
- Improve performance across the stack, including API response times, data processing, database access, and real-time event handling
- Design systems that can run in cloud environments and on-premises/edge deployments
- Contribute to the technical roadmap of a platform built for demanding, real-world environments
Requirements:
- 5+ years of backend or full-stack engineering experience with strong backend ownership
- Proven experience building high-scale, production-grade distributed systems
- Strong understanding of system design, performance optimization, reliability, and scalability
- Hands-on experience with Kubernetes, Docker, CI/CD pipelines, observability, and production operations
- Comfortable owning infrastructure and DevOps responsibilities, not just application code
- Experience with relational databases such as PostgreSQL, including schema design, query optimization, and performance tuning
- Strong API design skills and experience building reliable service-to-service architectures
- Ability to move fast while maintaining high standards for stability, security, and maintainability
- Product-minded, proactive, accountable, and comfortable in fast-moving startup environments
- Passionate about building technology with real-world consequences
- Computer science degree
Bonus qualifications: Strong Python experience (FastAPI or similar), real-time video systems or streaming pipelines, computer vision or ML infrastructure, on-premises or edge system deployment, GPU-based workloads or inference pipelines, systems operating under strict latency/bandwidth/hardware constraints, defense-tech or security background, early-stage startup experience, or experience collaborating with design and product teams.
