Backend Engineer

Location: London or Bristol (3 days a week in-office)

About Gendo

Gendo is a revolutionary, browser-based AI platform designed to empower architects and designers to generate accurate, high-quality visual representations of their designs in seconds, not days - a huge improvement on existing workflows.

Within 18 months of founding we built an alpha product, beta product and, in summer of this year, launched our early-access product publicly. Today this product has thousands of users across many organisations, generating tens of thousands of images.

We pride ourselves on being a lean, focussed and efficient team formed of highly talented individuals. This, and our product driven mantra, led to us securing both substantial pre-seed-stage and seed-stage funding from renowned investors within the space, enabling us to expand our team and deliver on our ambitious vision.

What we value

At Gendo, design is at the core of our mission- both in the design of our products and also through its power to elevate creative expression, pushing the boundaries of architectural possibilities.

Driven by the power of collaboration, we have refined our technology in partnership with renowned firms such as Zaha Hadid Architects, Benoy, KPF, and David Chipperfield Architects, and of course within the Gendo team itself.

We take an exploratory approach to work, continuously innovating and seeking new ways to enhance the design process for our users.

Our ambition is big, we're building a passionate, dedicated, world class team to transform the future of architecture and design, making cutting-edge tools accessible and enabling users to bring their boldest ideas to life with speed and precision.

Role Overview

We're looking for a backend engineer, who will work in our small but growing engineering team to deliver exciting new features that enhance the Gendo product suite. Our core browser based SaaS application is complex, involving real-time state management, 2D and 3D rendering, and advanced UI/UX features that are integral to our AI rendering product. The experience we're building is akin to platforms like Miro or Figma, with a rich canvas-based UI powered by WebGL and real-time collaboration supported through WebSockets.

Given our small team, we value talented backend developers with a strong ability to design, write and maintain reliable features. We want someone with a spark for product thinking who can contribute to the growth of our product and thrive in a fast-paced startup environment.

The ideal candidate can comfortably deliver moderately complex features to our services and who has a familiarity with managing scalability requirements. The candidate should also be familiar with React, or similar frontend frameworks, to deliver full-stack features from time to time, if required.

If you're excited about developing and maintaining a growing application suite, in an environment that rewards initiative and gives you the space to learn and grow, then we'd love to hear from you.

Key Responsibilities

• Work in a small, fast-paced team to develop existing and new backend services, working closely with product, machine-learning and frontend teams.
• Within the engineering team, work to find bespoke and novel solutions with particular regard to scalability, reliability and performance.
• Build on complex application state and ensure smooth UX in a real-time, collaborative environment using WebSockets and webhooks for live updates and async generation results.
• Build and maintain reliable features using data-driven metrics.
• Deliver features integrate with third-party services.
• Deliver simple frontend changes, working with frontend engineers where necessary, to deliver full-stack features.
• Implements and follows best practices, reviews code, and develops tests.

Requirements

• Proven experience in designing, building and deploying, production-level APIs with complex state persistence in a SQL relational database.
• Strong proficiency with Node.js and TypeScript and modular architecture. (Experience with Nest.js is a bonus)
• Experience with full-stack development, particularly with React (Next.js).
• Experience with working with AWS (or another cloud provider) and cloud services.
• A solid understanding of backend design patterns, principles and best practices.
• A solid understanding of, and experience, implementing testing strategies and quality controls.
• An understanding of backend performance and reliability considerations and optimisations.

It would be a bonus for you to have:

• Experience with real-time data handling using WebSockets or similar.
• Experience with AB testing.
• Experience working with or developing ML models and generative AI.
• (Extra bonus!) Experience or familiarity with CAD or 3D modelling software (e.g. Blender, 3DS Max) or computer graphics in general.

Tech Stack

• Frontend: Next.js (Typescript)
• Backend: NestJS (Typescript) and Python
• Postgres & Redis
• AWS (ECS, RDS, Lambda, S3 and more)
• Terraform w/ Terragrunt

Why join Gendo?

• Be a key player in driving the growth of a groundbreaking AI platform that is reshaping the architecture and design industry.
• Collaborate with leading architects and designers from top firms like Zaha Hadid Architects and David Chipperfield Architects.
• Work in a dynamic, fast-paced environment where your ideas and initiatives are valued.
• Be part of a creative, innovative team dedicated to pushing the limits of what's possible in frontend development.
• Competitive compensation package, including performance-based incentives and equity options.

What we offer

This is a full time position, during which you'll spend 3 days a week in either our London or Bristol office, and 2 days a week working remotely from home (in the UK).

• Stock options; we firmly believe that you should share our future successes with ownership in the company.
• 25 days holiday, plus a day off during your birthday week.
• Private medical, dental and vision insurance.
• Flexible well-being allowance (e.g. gym membership)
• Frequent company socials and events