About Ethyca

Ethyca is redefining trust in the age of AI. We build automated data privacy infrastructure that embeds governance directly into data, ensuring policy, consent, and control live wherever data moves. Our clients include The New York Times and the world's most advanced organizations scaling AI responsibly. We're on a mission to make trust, respect, and privacy a default feature of every tech stack.

The Role

As a Senior II Backend Engineer at Ethyca, you will be a technical leader and force multiplier on the engineering team. You'll architect and build the core systems that power Fides enabling enterprises to manage data governance, consent, and privacy rights at massive scale. This role demands deep technical expertise, strategic thinking, and the ability to mentor others while shipping high-impact features that directly affect how the world's largest organizations deploy AI responsibly.

Core Responsibilities

1. Technical Leadership & Architecture

Lead the design and implementation of major system components, from DSR orchestration to API integrations to high-performance data processing pipelines
Make critical decisions about system design, data models, and technology choices that will scale to support Fortune 500 customers processing billions of privacy requests
Identify architectural risks and scaling bottlenecks before they become issues; propose solutions that keep us ahead of customer needs
Champion best practices in code quality, testing, observability, and documentation; raise the bar for the entire team

2. Build & Ship High-Impact Features

Write clean, maintainable, well-tested code that serves millions of users and meets enterprise-grade reliability standards
Take projects from concept through design, implementation, testing, deployment, and iteration; driving outcomes, not just completing tasks
Balance speed and excellence; ship rapidly while maintaining high standards for code quality, testing, and documentation
Leverage AI-assisted tools to accelerate development, improve code quality, and enhance productivity across the development lifecycle

3. Collaboration & Mentorship

Provide technical guidance, code reviews, and architectural mentorship to help other engineers level up their skills
Lead project planning sessions, write detailed technical specifications, and ensure alignment across engineering, product, and design
Support the open source community through thoughtful PR reviews, issue triage, and helping users troubleshoot complex problems
Work closely with Product, Design, and Customer Success to ensure technical solutions align with business goals and customer needs

4. Operational Excellence

Design systems that handle enterprise workloads with demanding SLAs, security requirements, and compliance needs
Use metrics, monitoring, and data analysis to inform architectural choices and operational improvements
Take ownership of production systems; respond to incidents quickly and drive post-mortems that prevent future issues
Identify inefficiencies in development workflows, tooling, and processes; propose and implement solutions

What We Require

1. Technical Expertise

8+ years building production-grade web applications, distributed systems, or backend services with proven track record of delivering complex technical projects
Expert-level proficiency with Python 3 and web frameworks (Django, Flask, FastAPI); deep understanding of async programming, performance optimization, and Python ecosystem best practices
Strong experience designing RESTful APIs, third-party integrations, and building systems that other developers love to use
Proficient with relational (PostgreSQL, MySQL) and/or NoSQL databases (MongoDB, Redis); experience with data warehouses (Snowflake, BigQuery) is a plus
Passionate about automated testing (unit, integration, E2E); experienced with CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI) and maintaining high test coverage
Comfortable with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), containerization (Docker), and infrastructure-as-code

2. Enterprise Scale Experience

Built and operated systems handling millions of requests per day with stringent performance and reliability requirements
Understanding of enterprise security practices, data encryption, and compliance requirements (GDPR, CCPA, SOC 2)
Experience designing systems that serve multiple large enterprise customers with data isolation and tenant-specific configurations

3. Technical Leadership

Proven ability to design systems for scale, maintainability, and evolution; make sound technical tradeoffs between complexity, time, and quality
Tackle ambiguous, complex problems with innovative solutions; comfortable diving deep into unfamiliar codebases or technologies
Track record of helping other engineers grow through code reviews, pairing, documentation, and technical guidance
Drive initiatives from concept to completion without waiting to be told what to do; comfortable with autonomy and accountability

4. Collaboration & Communication

Strong technical writing skills; produce clear documentation, technical specs, and design proposals that bring clarity to complex topics
Thrive in distributed team environments; experienced working across time zones with async communication as default
Self-directed and productive in remote settings; proactive about over-communicating and keeping stakeholders informed
Comfortable with fast-paced environments where priorities shift; embrace rapid iteration and continuous delivery

Differentiators

1. AI Integration Experience

Hands-on experience with AI coding tools (GitHub Copilot, Cursor, etc.) to accelerate development and improve code quality
Built AI-powered features or worked with ML models in production environments
Experience integrating large language models into applications or infrastructure

2. Privacy/Security Domain Expertise

Experience building consent management, data mapping, or privacy rights fulfillment systems
Familiarity with GDPR, CCPA, or other privacy regulations and their technical implementation requirements
Deep understanding of application security, data encryption, and secure coding practices

3. Startup/High-Growth Experience

Thrived at Series A-C startups where you wore multiple hats and moved fast with limited resources
Shipped products or major features from scratch that moved key business metrics
Found creative solutions with constraints; comfortable with ambiguity and changing priorities

4. Additional Technical Depth

Comfortable working across the stack; can contribute to React/TypeScript codebases when needed
Experience with Kubernetes, Terraform, monitoring/observability tools (Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana)
Track record of identifying and resolving performance bottlenecks in high-traffic systems
Expert at query optimization, indexing strategies, and database performance tuning

5. Open Source & Community

Experience contributing to or maintaining open source projects; understand community dynamics and collaboration workflows
Demonstrate your technical skills through open source contributions, side projects, or technical writing
Enjoy helping others troubleshoot issues, reviewing PRs, and engaging with developer communities

Life at Ethyca

We want every Ethycan to achieve their best outcomes, that’s why we celebrate individuals’ strengths, skills, and interests, from your first interview to your long term growth, rather than rely on traditional career ladders. Ethyca is a distributed team with headquarters in NYC and remote workers across the US. In keeping consistent with Ethyca's values and culture, we believe employees “share the work” as one team, and in-person work affords the opportunity for more creative outcomes. Therefore we encourage Deployment Strategists to work from our offices to foster excellence in innovation and outcomes for our clients. Preference will be given to candidates who are able to come into the office, located in midtown Manhattan, at least 2 days a week.

We’re a Data Privacy and AI Governance company building a missing piece of the Internet’s infrastructure: the operating system for governance that empowers users and businesses to manage data respectfully. Every day, Ethycans tackle one of the world's most challenging problems - how to make data and AI driven technology safer for humanity - and thinking about the future of human rights as society increasingly moves online. If this sounds intriguing and you’re excited to shape that future with us, we’d want to speak with you.

Ethyca is committed to promoting a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion and is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We believe that all Ethycans share the responsibility of upholding our commitment to these values and encourage candidates from a wide range of backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences to join us in solving the world’s hardest problems. Ethyca does not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. Please see the United States Department of Labor’s EEO poster, EEO poster supplement and Pay Transparency Notice for additional information.

Compensation Range: TBD

Senior II Backend Engineer

Job Description