Senior Backend Engineer

About Prosperi

Prosperi partners with K–12 schools to ensure every student has access to exceptional counseling support. We combine licensed telecounselors with AI-powered software — filling counseling gaps, reducing administrative burden, and giving school counseling teams the tools and capacity they need to reach more students. The U.S. faces a critical counselor shortage, with a national average of 385 students per counselor against a recommended 250:1. Prosperi is built to close that gap.

Role Description

We’re looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to own and build our backend infrastructure. You’ll work closely with our CTO to design scalable, secure systems that power our AI counseling platform — from APIs and async data pipelines to GCP infrastructure and third-party integrations. Our AI agent layer is built in Python; the backend is Node.js. You’ll need to be fluent in both and comfortable operating across the stack.

This starts as a 2-month contract, with a path for the contract to hire.

What You’ll Do

• Design, build, and maintain scalable backend services and REST APIs in Node.js
• Own and extend our GCP infrastructure — compute, storage, networking, and environment management
• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines and support reliable, gated deployments across dev, staging, and production
• Work with our Python-based AI agent layer on integration points, data pipelines, and async processing
• Design and manage our PostgreSQL schema, including multi-tenant data isolation and query optimization
• Architect and operate async/event-driven workflows using message queues for AI jobs, SIS sync, and notifications
• Collaborate with our React / TypeScript frontend team on clean, reliable API contracts
• Implement security and compliance best practices for a FERPA-regulated K–12 environment
• Contribute to architectural decisions alongside the CTO

What You’ll Bring

• 5+ years of professional backend engineering experience
• Strong Node.js proficiency — REST API design, async patterns, performance, and production debugging
• Working knowledge of Python, particularly in the context of AI/ML pipelines or agent-based systems
• Hands-on GCP experience — Cloud Run, GCS, Cloud SQL, Pub/Sub, or comparable services
• PostgreSQL expertise: schema design, indexing, query optimization, and multi-tenant patterns
• Experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Cloud Build, or similar)
• Solid understanding of async and message-driven architectures (Pub/Sub, RabbitMQ, or similar)
• Comfortable working in a fast-moving, early-stage environment with high ownership expectations

Nice to Have

• Experience integrating AI/ML APIs or working alongside Python-based AI systems
• Familiarity with K–12 SIS platforms (PowerSchool, Infinite Campus) or FERPA-regulated environments
• Background in EdTech or other compliance-heavy domains
• Experience with IaC tooling (Terraform, Pulumi) on GCP

Why Prosperi

• Mission that matters — technology that directly supports student outcomes
• Foundational senior role with real technical ownership from day one
• Small team, visible impact — your work and ideas will be heard
• Clear contract-to-hire pathway with mutual evaluation built in