Software Development Engineer III | Backend

This is a senior IC role with significant architectural ownership and technical leadership expectations. A Seasoned SDE3 / Tech Lead at SpotDraft is expected to own and evolve critical systems end-to-end, influence technical direction across teams, and drive high-quality engineering decisions at a platform level. Beyond building systems, you will shape architecture, mentor engineers, and partner with leadership to guide long-term technical strategy. The role works closely with Engineering Leaders on system evolution and key technical decisions.

Requirements:

• 7-10 years of backend development experience in product environments.

• Strong Backend fundamentals (Python, Django/Flask experience is a plus).

• Proven experience designing and evolving multiple distributed or high-scale systems in production.

• Strong system design fundamentals with the ability to drive HLD + LLD independently.

• Demonstrated experience owning systems across multiple iterations (build, scale optimize evolve).

• Ability to reason deeply about performance, reliability, cost, and maintainability trade-offs.

• Experience in influencing cross-team technical decisions and architecture.

• Comfort working directly with stakeholders and driving alignment across functions.
  
  Responsibilities:

• Designing and evolving scalable backend systems (HLD + LLD) with clear trade-off articulation.

• Driving architecture decisions across services and influencing platform direction.

• Building and evolving APIs that power core product and platform workflows.

• Identifying opportunities for platform abstraction and reusable frameworks.

• Owning services/modules end-to-end across their lifecycle, including long-term scalability and stability.

• Proactively identifying and resolving performance bottlenecks and system limitations.

• Leading and contributing to design reviews with a strong focus on long-term architecture.

• Mentoring engineers and raising the quality bar for system design and code.

• Driving technical debt reduction and platform simplification initiatives.

• Partnering with Staff/Principal Engineers on complex system design and architectural direction.

• Using AI tools pragmatically to improve engineering quality and velocity.

• Ensuring systems are scalable, secure, reliable, and maintainable at scale.
  
  
  Why SpotDraft?

  • Brilliant teammates—Work with some of the sharpest minds in legal tech.

  • Expand your network—Interact with top founders, investors, and industry leaders.

  • Real impact—Take ownership of projects and see your work in action.

  • Big goals, bold moves—We trust you to deliver, innovate, and push boundaries.

  Our Core Values

  • Our business is to delight Customers

  • Be Transparent. Be Direct

  • Be Audacious

  • Outcomes over everything else

  • Elevate each other

  • Be Passionate. Take Ownership.

  • Be 1% better every day.

  All candidates’ personal data shared during the recruitment process will be handled with utmost confidentiality and used solely for hiring purposes, in line with applicable data protection regulations
  
  *SpotDraft is an equal-opportunity employer. Candidates will not be discriminated against based on race, ethnicity, color, religion, caste, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, veteran, or disability status

This senior backend engineering role focuses on designing and evolving production systems and APIs for SpotDraft’s product and platform. You’ll guide architecture across services, improve reliability and performance, and contribute to technical direction while mentoring engineers and working with stakeholders.

Role at a glance

Skills mentioned

What you will likely work on

• Design and evolve scalable backend systems, including HLD and LLD, while articulating technical trade-offs.
• Guide architecture decisions across services and contribute to platform direction.
• Build and improve APIs supporting core product and platform workflows.
• Identify opportunities for reusable abstractions and frameworks.
• Guide services and modules through their lifecycle, with attention to scalability and stability.
• Find and address performance bottlenecks and system limitations.
• Contribute to design reviews, mentor engineers, and raise system design and code quality.
• Reduce technical debt, simplify the platform, and partner with senior engineers on complex architecture.

Good fit signals

• You bring 7–10 years of backend development experience in product environments.
• You have designed and evolved multiple distributed or high-scale systems in production.
• You can independently drive HLD and LLD and make reasoned trade-offs across performance, reliability, cost, and maintainability.
• You have influenced cross-team technical decisions and can align stakeholders across functions.
• Django or Flask experience is a plus; the role also values mentoring and pragmatic use of AI tools.