At Zapier, we’re not just making software—we’re building a platform to help millions of businesses globally scale with automation and AI. Our mission is to make automation work for everyone by delivering products that delight our customers. You’ll collaborate with brilliant people, use the latest tools, and leverage the flexibility of remote work. Your work will directly fuel our customers’ success, and as they grow, so will you.
Job Posted: 1/17/2025
Location: North America
We’re looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to join the Canvas team. Canvas is Zapier’s platform for visually designing, building, and automating business workflows. Within Canvas, AI Assist is our cutting-edge initiative that leverages AI to recommend optimizations and help users build systems via APIs.
Zapier Canvas empowers users to visually design, build, and automate customer workflows. With intuitive diagramming tools and AI-assisted automation, users can transform ideas into powerful systems using Zapier's extensive suite of products. Users can annotate, share, and collaborate on Canvas documents, providing a clear and visual way to explain and refine their automations.
If you’re excited about building scalable systems that enable AI-driven automation and love creating tools that help customers simplify complex workflows, this role is for you!
About You
Required Technical Skills/Experience:
- 6+ years of professional experience in software engineering, with a focus on backend systems, APIs, and scalable architectures.
- Proficiency in TypeScript (preferred), Python, or a similar language for high-performance backend development.
- Experience designing, building, and maintaining APIs for complex systems, including API versioning and lifecycle management.
- Strong understanding of graph-based and relational database design, with the ability to represent complex relationships and dependencies.
- Demonstrated ability to make architectural decisions for scalable and high-throughput systems.
- Proven experience integrating AI/ML systems into production workflows, including optimization for inference and monitoring.
- Experience collaborating with cross-functional teams, including AI/ML specialists, product managers, and other engineers.
- Expertise in designing modular, reusable architectures for multi-team, multi-product ecosystems.
- Proficiency in optimizing backend performance, especially for latency-sensitive and high-throughput APIs.
- Experience with distributed ownership of data models and ensuring consistency across interconnected systems.
Nice-to-Have Technical Skills/Experience:
- Hands-on experience with LLMs or AI-powered recommendation engines in production systems.
- Hands-on experience with Fastify.
- You live by the “always ship new code” mantra. You take pleasure in releasing code frequently, knowing that every deployment brings with it enhancements that directly impact users. You believe in frequent, iterative improvement.
- You value collaboration. You understand that building software is a team sport, and you enjoy working as part of a tight-knit team. You’re happy to pitch in and help the team, whether by reviewing code, pairing on a tricky problem, or just thinking about how to solve the challenges we’re facing.
- You're driven by results, not by process. In the ever-changing landscape of software development, you recognize that while processes are essential, they should never overshadow the end goal: delivering exceptional value.
- You care about the ‘why' more than the ‘what'. If priorities seem nebulous or not optimized, you're confident and proactive in seeking clarity, ensuring that the team's efforts align with the broader vision. Misalignments don't escape you, and you're quick to flag them.
- You're intentional and articulate. Every design choice you make stems from a place of intentionality. You're not one to follow the herd blindly. Instead, you advocate robustly for your design choices and implementation strategies.
- You love teaching. You enjoy sharing knowledge with the rest of your team and building a culture of continuous growth. You have experience coaching engineers to help them level up.
- You're an avid learner. The tech world's constant evolution excites you. Always on the prowl for the next big thing, you're quick to immerse yourself in the intricacies of its implementation.
Things You’ll Do
Zapier is a small, fast-growing, and remote-first company, so you'll likely get experience on many different projects across the organization. That said, here are some things you'll probably do:
- Enhance AI Assist Capabilities: Build and optimize backend systems that power AI-driven recommendations, ensuring seamless integration with Canvas workflows. Develop high-throughput systems to process and serve data efficiently for AI-powered features.
- Collaborate with Product and Design Teams: Partner with product managers, UX designers, and AI/ML specialists to deliver intuitive and impactful backend solutions that support our users’ automation needs.
- Deliver our API-First Vision: Architect and implement scalable, developer-friendly APIs that enable seamless communication between Canvas and other Zapier products. Ensure APIs are secure, reliable, and optimized for performance.
- Optimize System Performance: Monitor and improve the reliability, scalability, and efficiency of backend systems, addressing performance bottlenecks, error rates, and maintaining high availability.
- Design Scalable Data Models: Create graph-based and relational data models that represent complex relationships and dependencies, supporting interconnected products across the Zapier ecosystem.
- Resolve Bugs and Implement Feature Requests: Investigate and address backend issues, ensuring they are resolved promptly while continuously looking for ways to improve based on user feedback.
- Collaborate Across Teams: Work with engineers, data specialists, and AI/ML teams across the organization to align on goals, share best practices, and drive innovation in backend system design.