Backend Developer

ZEIL is on a mission to become New Zealand’s most loved job marketplace and to do that we need incredible talent. Talent that’s driven by a shared desire of becoming the best and working with the best. We embrace the rich diversity of Aotearoa, building teams that reflect varied cultures and backgrounds. As helpful disruptors, we celebrate progress and advocate for the success of our members. At ZEIL, we value new perspectives and believe in making a meaningful impact. If you’re passionate about growth and inclusivity, we encourage you to join our journey. Mō Te Tūranga - About The Role Our platform combines AI-powered search, agentic recruiters, virtual interviewing, recommendation engines and intelligent automation. We're looking for engineers who want to build products at the forefront of AI rather than simply integrate existing software. If you're excited about Large Language Models, AI agents, vector search, distributed systems and solving difficult engineering problems, we'd love to meet you. You'll design scalable backend systems that power our AI products, integrate with modern LLM providers, build intelligent APIs and create services capable of processing millions of candidate and employer interactions. This is an opportunity to work on real-world AI applications rather than prototypes. You'll work closely with Product Managers, AI Engineers and Frontend Developers to build products used by thousands of employers and job seekers across New Zealand. What You’ll Do: Design, build and maintain highly scalable backend services supporting ZEIL's AI platform. Develop APIs that integrate with Large Language Models including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini and other foundation models. Build agentic workflows capable of planning, reasoning and completing recruitment tasks autonomously. Design backend services that support AI orchestration, prompt management and model evaluation. Build scalable event-driven architectures using queues, asynchronous processing and serverless technologies. Collaborate closely with Product, AI and Engineering teams to rapidly experiment and ship new AI capabilities. Optimise backend performance, observability, reliability and security. Contribute to architectural decisions that ensure ZEIL's AI platform remains scalable as adoption grows. Continuously evaluate emerging AI technologies and recommend opportunities for adoption. Key Responsibilities Design, development, and implementation of backend integrations using APIs (e.g., REST APIs) with a strong focus on the .NET framework (C#, ASP.NET). Collaborate proactively with developers and business stakeholders to gather, analyse, and understand complex integration requirements. Oversee and document comprehensive technical specifications to guide development projects. Architect and maintain efficient, scalable backend systems leveraging .NET technologies to support high-performance applications. Troubleshoot and resolve advanced technical challenges related to backend integrations, ensuring reliability and system robustness. Drive automation of backend processes to enhance performance and streamline operations. Stay at the forefront of industry advancements by researching and adopting the latest .NET technologies and best practices to continuously elevate development standards and team expertise. What We're Looking For You have extensive experience designing distributed backend systems in production environments. You enjoy solving difficult engineering problems and are curious about emerging AI technologies. You understand that building AI products requires both strong software engineering fundamentals and experimentation. You write clean, maintainable and well-tested code. Key Requirements: Eligible to work in New Zealand. Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, and other science related fields or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience. Extensive experience in designing, developing, and maintaining backend integrations using APIs, with a strong focus on the .NET framework (C#, ASP.NET). Deep understanding of relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL) and proficiency in SQL. Experience with cloud platforms (Azure/AWS/GCP) is highly advantageous. Exceptional problem-solving and analytical skills, capable of leading solutions for complex technical challenges. Demonstrated ability to work effectively both independently and as a leader within a collaborative team environment. Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to convey complex technical concepts clearly. Beneficial Skills/Experience Hands-on experience with AWS services (e.g.,, EC2, S3, Lambda, API Gateway, Opensearch) for backend integration deployment. Knowledge and hands-on experience with Python is desirable. Familiarity with message queuing systems (e.g.,SQS, Kafka, RabbitMQ). Proficiency in containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes) and experience with orchestration tools like Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS). Knowledge and practical experience with DevOps practices and tools Familiarity with eCommerce or payment technologies (e.g., Stripe) and email sending platforms (e.g., SendGrid, HubSpot). Knowledge of data engineering (e.g., BigQuery, ETL/ELT).