Senior Backend Developer (Java)

About Meraki Labs

Meraki Labs is at the forefront of India's deep-tech innovation landscape, operating as a dynamic venture studio founded by visionary entrepreneur Mukesh Bansal (Founder - Myntra, Cure Fit) and Peeyush Ranjan (Former Google VP and Flipkart CTO). Our mission is to build and rapidly scale AI-first, "moonshot" startupstransforming groundbreaking ideas into next-generation industry leaders. Through a hands-on, intensive partnership model, we work closely with exceptional founders, driving these ventures from concept to impact.

The Role

We are looking for a Senior Backend Engineer (57 years) who thrives on building the invisible machinery that powers complex applications. You aren't just writing APIs; you are architecting resilient, distributed systems that can handle the rigor of financial transactions at scale. You will act as a high-output IC while providing the architectural "rails" and mentorship for a small, high-performance engineering team.

What Youll Do

• Architect for Scale: Design and implement robust, scalable backend services using Java).
• Own the Infrastructure: Build and maintain distributed systems, focusing on microservices architecture, event-driven design, and seamless third-party integrations.
• System Integrity: Take ownership of system healthoptimizing database queries, managing cache layers (Redis/Memcached), and ensuring high availability and fault tolerance.
• AI Integration: Lead the charge in "AI-forward" development. This includes building RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) pipelines, managing vector databases, or optimizing model inference latency within the backend stack.

What Were Looking For

• The Experience: 5 to 7 years in backend development, with a significant portion spent architecting systems from 0 to 1 or scaling them to 10x.
• The Core: Deep mastery of Java and its ecosystem. You should be comfortable with concurrency, JVM tuning, and asynchronous processing.
• Architecture Savvy: You understand the trade-offs between SQL (PostgreSQL/MySQL) and NoSQL, and you know how to leverage message brokers (Kafka/RabbitMQ) for decoupled systems.
• FinTech DNA: You understand the nuances of trust, security, and precision in financial interfaces.
• AI Curiosity: You have explored the intersection of backend engineering and AIwhether through personal projects using LangChain, fine-tuning models, or building specialized API wrappers for LLMs.
• Leadership: You enjoy being an Individual Contributor but have the emotional intelligence and technical depth to collaborate with the team.

Technical Keywords We Value

• Languages/Frameworks: Java 17+, Spring Boot, Hibernate.
• Data & Messaging: PostgreSQL, Redis, Kafka, Elasticsearch.
• DevOps/Cloud: Docker, Kubernetes, AWS/GCP, CI/CD pipelines.
• AI: Vector DBs (Pinecone/Weaviate), OpenAI API integration, Python (for AI prototyping).

Why This Role?

• Complex Challenges: Solve high-stakes problems where millisecond improvements impact the bottom line.
• Modern Stack: Work in an environment that values AI experimentation and modern Java practices over legacy maintenance.
• Impact: As a Lead IC, your architectural decisions will define the companys technical foundation for years to come.

Why Join Us?

• An opportunity to directly work with founders.
• High autonomy and ownership of the frontend roadmap.
• Meaningful ESOP.
• The chance to build in an AI-native environment.
• Competitive compensation and the opportunity to shape the engineering culture of a growing team.

Interview Process

1. Technical Round 1 - 60 minutes
2. Take Home Assignment + Panel Presentation
3. Culture Fitment

The Recruiter for this role is Ritesh Kalvellu - ritesh@merakilabs.com. You can connect with him for queries about the role.