Backend Architect

About UNISON

UNISON is a small team of passionate people from companies like Meta, Sony, and Apple and research labs like the IARAI, based in the SF Bay Area and backed by some of the world’s best investors.

Learn more about us, our product, and our team here: in-unison.com.

About the Role:

Our early-stage team is seeking a Backend Architect to lead the architecture and development of our online collaborative platform's backend infrastructure. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in designing and implementing scalable, high-performance backend systems that support real-time interaction and collaboration. This role involves a mix of strategic planning, technology selection, and hands-on development, ensuring our platform can seamlessly support dynamic user interactions within collaborative sessions.

Your Responsibilities:

• Architect and develop a scalable, secure, and efficient backend infrastructure for real-time online collaboration, focusing on optimizing performance and user experience.

• Design and implement robust authentication and authorization services to secure user data and ensure privacy.

• Oversee the implementation of database solutions and data management strategies that ensure fast, reliable access to data across distributed environments.

• Design and implement real-time communication protocols and services, facilitating seamless user collaboration and interaction.

• Collaborate with web front-end and client developers to ensure efficient, reliable integration between the client-side application and server-side services.

• Stay abreast of emerging technologies and architectural patterns that could enhance platform performance, scalability, and functionality.

• Ensure compliance with security best practices and data protection laws.

• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to the development team, fostering a culture of excellence and continuous improvement.

Your Qualifications:

• 10+ years of overall backend development experience. 

• 5+ years of proven experience as a Backend Architect or in a similar role, with a strong portfolio of scalable, high-performance backend systems.

• Expertise in server-side languages (e.g., Go, Node.js, Python, PHP) and frameworks relevant to real-time communication and web services development.

• Experience with database design and management, including both SQL and NoSQL technologies.

• Familiarity in storage of 3-dimensional data in the backend.

• Knowledge of authentication, security protocols, and data encryption techniques.

• Familiarity with cloud services (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure) and their application to scalable backend architectures.

• Strong distributed debugging skills. 

• Excellent problem-solving skills, with a creative and analytical approach to architecture design and development.

• Strong leadership qualities and experience managing or leading development teams.

• Effective problem-solving abilities and capacity to work both independently and as part of a team.

• Excellent communication skills for clear documentation and technical explanations.

• Ability to travel, as required, up to 10%.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with debugging C++ for low-latency operations.

• Applied Linear Algebra for 3D applications, familiarity with 3D concepts.

Why UNISON?

We are a small team of passionate people working hard to create products that we would be proud to recommend to our friends and family. You can read more about careers at UNISON here: in-unison.com/careers.

We see living between virtual and physical worlds as a tool for creating, storytelling and sharing — not a hindrance to your total lived experience. You can learn more about our worldviews at in-unison.com.

We are growing quickly so if you’re interested in joining us but don’t see a job that fits what you’re looking for or if your experience doesn’t quite check all the boxes, please feel free to reach out – we are happy to connect.