Senior Backend Developer (TypeScript/Node.js)

About Utorg: Founded in 2019, Utorg builds infrastructure for stablecoin payments including on- and off-ramps, self-custodial wallets, and crypto cards. The platform serves over 2 million users in 130+ countries and supports 2,100+ B2B platforms with $2.4B+ moved to date. The company is fully MiCA-authorized across the EEA and PCI DSS Level 2 certified, backed by Dragonfly, TA Ventures, and Hypra. Tasks: — Own backend architecture across two large-scale microservice platforms (30+ and 25+ services), including system design, API contracts, data flow, and inter-service communication. — Lead complex integrations with payment providers, card issuers, blockchain networks, and third-party APIs, ensuring reliability in production. — Drive performance and scalability by identifying bottlenecks, designing caching strategies, optimizing database queries, and ensuring platform handles growing load. — Shape technical direction by making architectural decisions, evaluating trade-offs, and influencing engineering standards. — Partially offload the Tech Lead to help scale the team. — Build and improve AI-powered processes using LLM-based systems to automate operational and development workflows. — Contribute to office frontends (~20% time) by maintaining and extending React-based admin dashboards. — Own features end-to-end from planning and design to implementation, testing, production monitoring, and iterative improvement. — Collaborate closely with Product, QA, and cross-functional teams, produce technical documentation, participate in code reviews, and share knowledge. — Participate in shared on-call rotation approximately one week per month. Requirements: — 5+ years of production backend development experience with TypeScript/Node.js. — 2+ years of production experience with NestJS including modules, providers, middleware, guards, interceptors, and microservice architecture. — Deep PostgreSQL expertise including schema design, indexing (partial, GIN/GiST), query optimization, zero-downtime migrations, and database-per-service pattern. — Hands-on microservices experience (not monolith split into modules). — Experience with inter-service communication (RPC, pub/sub), message brokers, idempotency, eventual consistency, saga/outbox patterns. — System design skills including decomposing services, designing API contracts, data flow architecture, and capacity planning. — Ability to whiteboard systems and explain architectural decisions. — Experience with complex integrations with third-party APIs, payment systems, or similar external services in production. — Knowledge of retries, circuit breakers, and graceful degradation. — Performance engineering skills including profiling, caching strategies, load analysis, and bottleneck identification. — Ability to optimize slow queries and services. — Production blockchain experience with on-chain transactions, multiple networks, and real user funds. — Understanding of HD wallets (BIP32/BIP39), smart contracts, ABI, ERC-20/SPL tokens, and account-based vs UTXO models. — Experience with libraries such as ethers.js, viem, and solana/web3.js. — AI-driven development experience using AI tools (Claude, Copilot, Cursor) and optimizing business or organizational processes with AI/LLMs. — Strong testing discipline including unit tests (Jest), integration tests with real databases, and microservice testing. — Security-conscious coding practices suitable for fintech and crypto. — Skilled in technical research, evaluating trade-offs, testing hypotheses, and making data-driven architectural decisions. — English proficiency at Upper-Intermediate level. — Fluent in Russian. Nice to have: — Experience with NATS JetStream as a transport layer. — Observability tools: OpenTelemetry, Prometheus + Grafana, structured logging (pino), distributed tracing. — Advanced Kubernetes skills including Kustomize/Helm, deployment strategies, and resource management. — Fintech domain knowledge: PCI DSS, GDPR, KYC/AML, payment systems. — Experience mentoring junior/middle developers. — React basics for office UIs (functional components, hooks, Redux, Material-UI). — Close collaboration with Product, QA, Frontend, and Mobile teams; essential cross-functional communication. Key results expected: 30 days: Ship first features to production, deep dive into stack, architecture, and domain. 60 days: Independently drive complex integration or major feature, participate in architectural code reviews, propose improvements. 90 days: Make architectural decisions, influence technical direction, partially offload Tech Lead, participate in planning. Conditions: — Fully remote work. — Agile, international team. — Engineering culture encouraging modern tools and development practices. — Two career tracks: Tech Lead or Staff/Principal IC. — Career progression and professional development in fintech. — Competitive salary based on individual performance review. — Transparent feedback culture valuing ownership and open dialogue. Recruitment process: — Submit application and CV. — Application review. — HR interview. — Technical interview. — Team Lead interview. — Offer and next steps.