Senior Backend Engineer (Django), High Ownership

Work & Travel Guide is a young, fast-growing startup. We are building a product that helps people discover the world... smarter, simpler, and radically better than anything available today. But this is about more than features. We are building the infrastructure for freedom. For people who do not want to travel someday, but now. You will join at a stage where your decisions will make a real difference: Maximum impact: You will work on core systems across backend, frontend, architecture, and deployments - the systems that support both the product and the company. Fast-growing responsibility: If you deliver, your scope will grow quickly. You can move from owning individual components to leading architecture, owning processes, and eventually helping build a team. With enough commitment, your path can go very far. You will work closely with the CTO. Short communication lines, fast decisions, and real technical leadership. Backend & APIs - Django (main focus) Build and continuously improve backend systems and APIs in Django. Take ownership of architecture decisions around scalability, reliability, and maintainability. Frontend - React (experience with any other frontend technology is fine) Build features in the React frontend, including UI, state management, and backend integration. Improve performance and developer experience. Design clean interfaces between frontend and backend. Engineering Excellence Implement and improve CI/CD pipelines and deployment workflows. Consistently apply clean code, design patterns, and strong system design principles. Refactor larger parts of the codebase to improve long-term maintainability, using modern tools such as Claude Code. Systematically expand testing and QA, including unit, integration, and end-to-end testing depending on the area. AI-supported Productivity Actively use and improve AI-assisted development workflows to iterate faster, increase quality, and automate repetitive work. Strong experience in backend development. Some frontend experience in any framework is preferred. Excellent backend skills, especially with Django, APIs, and data models. Solid understanding of architecture, design patterns, and clean code principles. Hands-on experience with CI/CD, including build pipelines, tests, deployments, and release processes. Strong testing and QA practices. Familiarity with modern toolchains and workflows, including AI-assisted development. Bonus Experience with Go and/or Rust, or strong curiosity to learn them, as we plan to expand parts of the system in that direction over time. 100% remote option , or work from our office in Frankfurt, Germany — whatever you prefer. High autonomy and ownership : you influence decisions and build end-to-end. Direct collaboration with the CTO : short feedback loops, fast decisions, and real technical leadership. Your ideas matter : small team, big impact, fast iteration. Retreats and workations : you are invited to come join us for workations in interesting and inspiring places all around the world regularly Strong engineering culture : clean architecture, code reviews, testing, and observability. AI at the core : modern AI tooling stacks, used only where they truly make sense. Stock option program for employees who stand out through exceptional talent and commitment. We accept applications exclusively via email to tech \[at\] workandtravelguide .org