# Senior Backend Software Engineer
**Company:** [Tennr](https://scaleengineer.com/companies/tennr)
Senior Backend Software Engineer at Tennr, a healthcare automation AI company, responsible for architecting and implementing end-to-end backend services supporting high-volume workflow automation and machine learning infrastructure. This role requires 5+ years of backend development expertise with JavaScript/TypeScript, proven experience building scalable systems in healthcare or fintech, and a passion for systems architecture and data modeling in fast-paced startup environments.
**Role:** Backend Engineer
**Seniority:** Senior
**Locations:** New York City Office
**Salary:** 190000–215000 USD
[Apply](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/tennr/a0387208-fabd-453c-96f1-dcfe77f3af07)
Canonical: https://scaleengineer.com/jobs/tennr/senior-backend-software-engineer-a0387208
---
## Responsibilities

- End-to-End Backend Architecture: Architect and implement features that drive direct customer value across backend services and infrastructure. Design scalable microservices, define service boundaries, and ensure robust communication patterns between distributed systems handling high-volume medical referral workflows.
- Workflow Automation Leadership: Lead initiatives in high-volume workflow automation, building and optimizing scalable data processing pipelines that handle thousands of concurrent referral requests. Design state machines and orchestration logic to coordinate complex multi-step processes across provider networks.
- Machine Learning Integration: Design and maintain complex workflows that leverage machine learning models to drive intelligent automation. Integrate ML models into production environments, optimize data pipelines for feature engineering, and ensure ML inference systems meet latency and accuracy requirements for healthcare operations.
- Performance Optimization & Scalability: Drive performance optimization efforts across all stack layers, ensuring sub-second latency for critical referral processing paths. Implement caching strategies, database query optimization, and asynchronous processing to handle peak loads while maintaining system reliability and adherence to healthcare compliance standards.
- Third-Party System Integration: Lead design and implementation of integrations with insurance company systems, provider networks, and healthcare platforms. Ensure seamless data exchange, error handling, and recovery mechanisms for mission-critical workflows that directly impact patient care timelines.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with sales, customer success, and customer experience teams to incorporate feedback from healthcare providers and insurance companies. Translate business requirements into technical specifications and maintain communication around implementation timelines and technical constraints.
- Proactive Project Ownership: Embrace a founder's mindset by taking end-to-end ownership of projects from conception through production. Drive projects from initial architecture decisions through deployment, monitoring, and optimization, contributing significantly to the company's growth trajectory in the healthcare automation space.
- System Design & Data Modeling: Design and optimize complex data schemas that support high-throughput referral processing, insurance claim management, and provider communication workflows. Make architectural decisions that balance consistency, availability, and partition tolerance for healthcare-critical operations.

## Requirements

### education

- {"name":"Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Related Field","description":"Formal education in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related technical discipline. Alternatively, equivalent professional experience demonstrating mastery of core computer science principles and software engineering practices."}

### technical

- {"name":"Backend Development with JavaScript/TypeScript","description":"5+ years of professional backend development experience with strong proficiency in JavaScript and TypeScript. Demonstrated expertise building production-grade Node.js applications handling high-throughput systems with complex business logic."}
- {"name":"Systems Architecture & Design","description":"Proven ability to design scalable, resilient backend architectures including microservices, event-driven systems, and distributed systems. Experience making architectural trade-offs and designing for scalability, reliability, and maintainability at enterprise scale."}
- {"name":"Database Design & Optimization","description":"Strong experience with relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL databases. Ability to design efficient schemas, optimize queries, implement indexing strategies, and manage data integrity in high-volume transaction processing environments."}
- {"name":"Workflow Orchestration & Event-Driven Systems","description":"Experience designing and implementing event-driven architectures, message queues, and workflow orchestration frameworks. Familiarity with tools like Apache Kafka, RabbitMQ, or similar systems for handling high-volume asynchronous processing."}
- {"name":"Machine Learning Integration","description":"Experience integrating machine learning models into production backend systems. Understanding of model deployment, inference optimization, feature pipelines, and monitoring ML systems in production environments."}
- {"name":"Data Processing & Analytics","description":"Proficiency building scalable data processing pipelines and ETL systems. Experience with stream processing, batch processing, and analytics infrastructure. Familiarity with tools for managing large-scale data workflows."}

### experience

- {"name":"High-Volume System Development","description":"Proven track record of building and maintaining scalable web applications and backend systems handling thousands of requests per second. Direct experience with performance optimization, load testing, and ensuring systems remain reliable under peak traffic conditions."}
- {"name":"Healthcare or Regulated Industry Experience","description":"Preferred experience in healthcare technology, fintech, or other regulated industries requiring compliance considerations, data privacy (HIPAA/SOC 2), and mission-critical reliability. Understanding of healthcare workflows, claims processing, or provider management systems is a significant plus."}
- {"name":"Startup or Fast-Paced Environment","description":"Experience in a startup or fast-paced tech environment where you've worn multiple hats, demonstrated initiative, and adapted quickly to changing priorities. Comfort with ambiguity and ability to make decisions with incomplete information."}
- {"name":"Workflow Automation Expertise","description":"Direct experience designing and implementing complex workflow automation systems. Understanding of state management, concurrency, error handling, and operational observability for mission-critical automation workflows."}
- {"name":"Full-Cycle Development Ownership","description":"Track record of taking products from design through production deployment, monitoring, and optimization. Experience collaborating across teams, gathering requirements, and implementing solutions that drive customer value."}

## Skills

### required

- {"name":"JavaScript/TypeScript","description":"Expert-level proficiency in JavaScript with strong TypeScript skills. Ability to write clean, well-typed, maintainable code with deep understanding of asynchronous programming, closures, prototypes, and modern ES6+ features."}
- {"name":"Backend Frameworks","description":"Production experience with Node.js backend frameworks such as Express, NestJS, or Fastify. Experience building RESTful APIs, implementing middleware, and designing service architecture patterns."}
- {"name":"Relational Database Design","description":"Strong proficiency with PostgreSQL or MySQL including schema design, query optimization, indexing strategies, and understanding of transaction isolation levels and ACID properties."}
- {"name":"System Design & Architecture","description":"Demonstrated ability to design complex systems including service decomposition, API design, caching strategies, and making architectural decisions that balance competing requirements."}
- {"name":"Problem-Solving & Code Quality","description":"Excellent problem-solving skills with attention to clean code practices, design patterns, and maintainability. Ability to write efficient algorithms and optimize performance bottlenecks."}
- {"name":"Technical Communication","description":"Outstanding communication skills capable of articulating complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences. Experience documenting architecture decisions and leading technical discussions."}

### preferred

- {"name":"Event-Driven Architecture","description":"Experience designing event-driven systems using message brokers like Kafka, RabbitMQ, or AWS SQS. Understanding of event sourcing patterns and eventual consistency models."}
- {"name":"Workflow Orchestration Tools","description":"Hands-on experience with workflow orchestration frameworks such as Apache Airflow, Temporal, Prefect, or similar tools for managing complex business processes at scale."}
- {"name":"Machine Learning Model Integration","description":"Experience deploying and integrating ML models into production systems, working with ML frameworks, and optimizing inference pipelines for latency and throughput."}
- {"name":"Cloud Infrastructure","description":"Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) including containerization with Docker, orchestration with Kubernetes, and infrastructure-as-code practices."}
- {"name":"Healthcare or Insurance Domain Knowledge","description":"Understanding of healthcare workflows, insurance processing, HIPAA compliance, or prior experience in healthcare technology companies solving real provider and payer challenges."}
- {"name":"Observability & Monitoring","description":"Experience implementing comprehensive monitoring, logging, and tracing solutions. Proficiency with tools like Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack, Datadog, or similar APM platforms."}
- {"name":"Data Pipeline Development","description":"Experience building scalable data pipelines, ETL systems, and analytics infrastructure. Familiarity with batch and stream processing patterns and data warehouse design."}

## Tech stack

### tools

- {"name":"Git & Version Control","description":"Proficiency with Git for collaborative development, code review, and version management across distributed teams."}
- {"name":"Docker","description":"Experience containerizing backend applications for consistent deployment across development, testing, and production environments."}
- {"name":"Kubernetes","description":"Experience with orchestrating containerized backend services at scale, managing deployments, scaling, and service mesh patterns."}
- {"name":"CI/CD Platforms","description":"Experience with GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, or similar platforms for automating testing and deployment pipelines for healthcare-grade reliability."}
- {"name":"Monitoring & Observability","description":"Proficiency with logging, metrics, and tracing tools like Prometheus, Grafana, or ELK Stack to ensure visibility into system health and performance."}

### others

- {"name":"Message Brokers (Kafka/RabbitMQ)","description":"Experience designing asynchronous systems using message queues for decoupling services, enabling high-throughput processing of referral workflows, and ensuring reliable delivery of critical healthcare events."}
- {"name":"Workflow Orchestration","description":"Familiarity with orchestration frameworks for managing complex multi-step processes, conditional logic, error handling, and retry mechanisms in healthcare automation workflows."}
- {"name":"Machine Learning Deployment","description":"Understanding of ML model deployment, feature engineering pipelines, and monitoring ML systems in production for intelligent referral routing and automation optimization."}
- {"name":"REST API Design","description":"Expertise in designing intuitive, scalable REST APIs with proper versioning, error handling, rate limiting, and documentation for internal and external integrations."}

### databases

- {"name":"PostgreSQL","description":"Primary relational database for storing complex referral workflows, provider data, and insurance information. Strong experience with advanced features like JSONB, window functions, and query optimization expected."}
- {"name":"Redis","description":"In-memory data store used for caching, session management, and as a message broker for real-time workflow coordination and high-throughput data access patterns."}

### languages

- {"name":"JavaScript","description":"Core language for backend development with Node.js. Used for building APIs, business logic, and system components handling referral workflow automation."}
- {"name":"TypeScript","description":"Strongly preferred for type safety and maintainability in complex backend systems. Provides compile-time error detection and improved code documentation for large-scale applications."}
- {"name":"SQL","description":"Essential for designing and optimizing database queries, schema design, and data manipulation in relational databases managing referral and provider data."}

### frameworks

- {"name":"Node.js","description":"Runtime environment for building scalable backend services. Likely used for building the core backend infrastructure supporting Tennr's workflow automation platform."}
- {"name":"Express/NestJS/Fastify","description":"Web frameworks for building RESTful APIs and backend services. Experience with at least one of these frameworks for building production-grade applications."}

## Benefits

### benefits

- {"name":"Comprehensive Health Coverage","description":"100% paid employee health benefit options including medical, dental, and vision insurance. Full coverage removes the financial barrier to healthcare access for you and your family."}
- {"name":"Unlimited Paid Time Off","description":"Unlimited PTO policy with a strong culture of taking time off. Trust-based approach to vacation, allowing you to balance work with personal well-being and family time without artificial constraints."}
- {"name":"Retirement Planning Support","description":"Employer-funded 401(k) match to help you build long-term wealth and financial security. Competitive matching structure supporting your retirement planning and financial independence goals."}
- {"name":"Family-Friendly Policies","description":"Competitive parental leave supporting work-life balance for new parents. Recognition that life events matter and providing meaningful time to bond with family while maintaining financial stability."}
- {"name":"Modern Office Environment","description":"Beautiful new office space at 345 Hudson Street in Manhattan's Hudson Square neighborhood. High-quality workspace designed to foster collaboration and innovation with excellent commute accessibility."}
- {"name":"Office Perks & Wellness","description":"Free lunch and a well-stocked pantry supporting daily wellness and team bonding. Small but meaningful touches that demonstrate company investment in employee well-being and daily experience."}

## Compensation

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- **min:** 0
- **currency:** 
- **stockOptions:** false

## Interview process

### steps

## Full description
# **Company Description**

Today, when you go to your doctor and get referred to a specialist, your doctor sends out a referral and tells you, “They’ll be in touch soon.” So you wait. And wait. Sometimes days, weeks, or even months. Why? Because too often providers are overwhelmed with the painstakingly tedious work required to get paid by insurance companies. Powered by proprietary models, Tennr handles the complex paperwork that gets patients through the door and providers paid, helping operators get patients the right care, at the right time, in the right setting.

# **Role Description**

We’re seeking a Senior **Backend Engineer** with a passion for **systems architecture, data modeling, and large-scale workflow orchestration**. In this role, you’ll **architect and implement features end-to-end** across our backend services and infrastructure, ensuring they deliver direct customer value. You’ll design and optimize **data schemas**, build resilient backend services, and ensure seamless **integration with third-party systems**.

You’ll lead initiatives in **high-volume workflow automation**, with a strong focus on building and optimizing **scalable data processing and machine learning infrastructure**. This includes designing and maintaining complex workflows that leverage ML to drive automation, as well as driving **performance optimization efforts** to ensure scalability, reliability, and adherence to best practices across all layers of the stack.

Collaboration is key—you’ll work closely with **sales and customer experience teams** to incorporate customer feedback, and with engineering teammates to bring robust solutions to life. We’re looking for someone who **embraces a founder’s mindset**, thrives on **systems-wide thinking**, and proactively drives projects from conception to completion.

The ideal candidate has experience with **backend architecture, event-driven systems, and orchestration frameworks**, along with a proven track record of **building production-ready systems**. You’ll play a key role in shaping the **technical foundation of our platform**, ensuring reliability, scalability, and adaptability as we expand.

# **Responsibilities**

* Architect and implement features that drive direct customer value end-to-end across our backend services and infrastructure.
* Lead initiatives in high-volume workflow automation, with a strong focus on building and optimizing scalable data processing and machine learning infrastructure.
* Design and maintain complex workflows that leverage machine learning to drive automation.
* Drive performance optimization efforts, ensuring scalability, reliability, and adherence to best practices across all layers of our stack.
* Collaborate with sales and customer success teams to respond to feedback from our customers and prospects.
* Embrace a founder’s mindset, proactively driving projects from conception to completion, and contributing significantly to our company’s growth and success.

# **Candidate Qualifications**

* 5+ years of experience in backend development, with a strong focus on JavaScript and familiarity with TypeScript.
* Proven track record of building and maintaining scalable web applications, particularly in high-volume workflow automation and data processing.
* Experience with integrating machine learning models into production environments and optimizing data pipelines.
* Excellent problem-solving skills and a knack for efficient, clean coding practices.
* Outstanding communication skills, capable of articulating complex technical concepts to a diverse audience.
* A team player who thrives in collaborative environments and values diverse perspectives.
* Prior experience in a startup or fast-paced tech environment is a plus.

# **Why Tennr?**

* Drive Impact: one of our company values is Cowboy, meaning you set the pace. You won’t just talk about things, you’ll get them done. And feel the impact.
* Develop Operational Expertise: learn the inner workings of scaling systems, tools, and infrastructure
* Innovate with Purpose: we’re not just doing this for fun (although we do have a lot of fun). At Tennr, you’ll join a high-caliber team maniacally focused on reducing patient delays across the U.S. healthcare system.
* Build Relationships: collaborate and connect with like-minded, driven individuals in our Hudson Square office 4 days/week
* Free lunch! Plus a pantry full of snacks.

# **Benefits**

* Beautiful new office at 345 Hudson Street
* Unlimited PTO
* 100% paid employee health benefit options
* Employer-funded 401(k) match
* Competitive parental leave