Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Parallels is a VDI/EUC product company delivering desktop and cloud solutions for modern work environments. The Principal Backend Engineer will define backend architecture and technical strategy, lead the decomposition of a mature Django application into scalable asynchronous microservices, and establish secure, resilient APIs and integration patterns. The role also serves as a technical cornerstone by driving engineering standards, architectural transitions, and mentorship across the engineering team.
Responsibilities
- Drive and define **architectural roadmaps** for backend systems
- Architect and lead the **strategic decomposition** of a mature Django application into scalable, **asynchronous microservices**
- **Define technical strategy, tech stack, and how code is organized across repositories.** Make critical build-vs-buy decisions, including evaluating whether to proceed with internal implementation vs. using a 3rd-party tool
- **Write code for the most complex, critical system mechanisms.** While you won't be fixing everyday bugs, you will implement the most critical mechanisms, and features for the business. Help teammates when needed
- **Architect secure and scalable integration patterns** across the system, establishing best practices for 3rd-party integrations, identity management, and SSO/SCIM integrations
- **Redefine system architecture & design** by auditing existing microservices and implementing strict bounded contexts
- **Design robust, scalable, and standardized APIs**. Take ownership of the cloud architecture strategy with a strong emphasis on backend resilience, fault tolerance, and performance
- **Act as the technical cornerstone for the engineering team.** Partner directly with engineering leadership to define and enforce technical standards. You will have the organizational backing to drive complex architectural transitions across a team of 7-8 engineers
Skills
- **Expert knowledge of modern backend infrastructure** and asynchronous messaging/storage (RabbitMQ, Celery, Kafka, PostgreSQL, Redis, etc.)
- **Solid foundation in Python (or deep expertise in Go/C++/Rust with a working knowledge of Python)** coupled with the **engineering maturity** to quickly master the Python backend ecosystem
- **Extensive Backend Experience** with a proven track record in principal-level roles designing complex, distributed systems
- **Pragmatic Architectural Mastery.** Expertise in designing highly cohesive, loosely coupled systems. Deep understanding of software design patterns and architectural methodologies such as **Domain-Driven Design, Clean Architecture, Hexagonal** combined with the clear judgment on when simpler approaches are better
- **Strong background in designing client APIs.** Not just individual APIs or groups, but the entire API schema and contract of a system
- **Deep understanding of cloud architecture**, containerization, and CI/CD pipelines
- **Demonstrated ability to influence engineering practices**, **drive technical consensus**, and**lead complex architectural transitions** across multiple teams
- You have **skills and authority to coach** and mentor the team
- **You have skills or knowledge the team can learn from you**
- Experience working in **Agile/Scrum environments**
- Experience with **Azure** as a cloud platform
- Experience designing and implementing **GraphQL** APIs
- Experience with **Kubernetes** or other container orchestration tools
- Experience implementing **Identity Management** in enterprise applications (SCIM provisioning, OAuth2, OpenID Connect, SAML)
- **Polyglot background:** Experience with Golang, Rust, or C++ for performance-critical domains
- **Spec-Driven Development (SDD) & AI-Native Engineering.** Experience designing formal, machine-readable specifications and strict contracts, tests as the single source of truth. You know how to define strict system boundaries and executable contracts that constrain AI agents, ensuring they accelerate code generation without introducing architectural drift or spaghetti code
Benefits
- Flexible work arrangements: work when, how, and where you want
- The ability to work anywhere
Company Overview