Principal Backend Engineer|Architect jobs in United States
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LUDEX · 6 hours ago

Principal Backend Engineer|Architect

positionChicago, IL
timeFull-time
remoteHybrid
senioritySenior Level, Lead/Staff
date7+ years exp

Ludex, Inc. is a consumer-facing technology platform transforming the sports and trading card hobby through AI-driven scanning, data, and marketplace tools. They are seeking a hands-on Principal Engineer to design, build, and scale the backend systems that power their consumer and enterprise products, with a focus on architecture decisions and performance optimization.

Financial ServicesFinTechInformation TechnologySportsTrading Platform
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Growth Opportunities

Responsibilities

Design, develop, and maintain scalable backend services using Node.js, NestJS, and TypeScript
Build and optimize APIs that support consumer-facing products and enterprise workflows
Design, manage, and optimize PostgreSQL databases and data models for performance and reliability
Work with AWS infrastructure (e.g., EC2, RDS, S3, Lambda, CloudWatch, etc.)
Collaborate closely with frontend engineers, product, and other teams to deliver end-to-end features
Ensure high standards for code quality, efficiency, security, and performance
Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks across services and databases
Participate in architecture discussions and contribute to long-term technical strategy
Support deployments, monitoring, and system reliability in production environments
Thrive in a fast-paced startup environment, balancing speed with sound engineering judgment

Qualification

Node.jsTypeScriptPostgreSQLAWSNestJSAPI designSystem architectureDevOpsPerformance tuningCommunicationCollaborative mindset

Required

7+ years of professional backend engineering experience
Strong proficiency with Node.js and TypeScript
Hands-on experience with NestJS or similar backend frameworks
Deep experience working with relational databases, particularly PostgreSQL
Proven experience building and scaling consumer-facing applications
Experience working with AWS in production environments
Strong understanding of API design, data modeling, and system architecture
Ability to write clean, efficient, maintainable, and well-tested code
Strong ability to independently evaluate technical approaches and make architecture decisions in a startup environment
Proven experience owning backend systems end-to-end, including design, implementation, deployment, and ongoing evolution
Comfortable working in ambiguous, fast-moving environments with evolving requirements
Strong communication skills and a collaborative mindset

Preferred

DevOps experience, including CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, or deployment automation
Experience with system monitoring, observability, and performance tuning
Experience supporting high-scale or data-intensive applications
Prior startup or high-growth company experience

Company

LUDEX

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LUDEX is a sports and trading card scanning application that digitizes trading-card collections.
dateFounded in 2021
location
Chicago, Illinois, USA
people-size11-50 employees
web-link
https://www.ludex.com/

Funding

Current Stage
Early Stage
Total Funding
$9.1M
2023-03-29Seed· $8M
2022-10-27Debt Financing· $1.1M

Leadership Team

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Brian Ludden
Chief Executive Officer
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Heather Denniston
Co-Founder & President
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Recent News

PR Newswire
LUDEX ANNOUNCES STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP WITH REV ENTERTAINMENT, OFFICIAL SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT PARTNER OF THE TEXAS RANGERS
2025-06-18
Chicago Inno
Brian Urlacher-backed trading card app Ludex raises $8 million
2023-03-30
markets.businessinsider.com
Trading Card Scanner and Price Guide App Ludex Raises $8M in Seed Round. Investors Include NFL Athletes, Brian Urlacher and Cassius Marsh
2023-03-30
Company data provided by crunchbase