Senior Backend Engineer

About Evolve MMA

Evolve MMA is Asia’s premier martial arts organisation, operating globally and now building a next-generation SaaS platform to transform martial arts learning. Our technology powers everything from operations and scheduling to data-driven training experiences for students and instructors worldwide.

We are expanding our tech team to bring this vision to life.

About the Role:

You'll be the first in-house backend engineer at Evolve MMA, Asia's #1 martial arts academy. That means you're not joining a team, you're building the foundation one is built on.

We have an existing production platform (React/TypeScript frontend, Node.js/TypeScript backend, MySQL on AWS Aurora, hosted on EC2/S3/CloudFront) that runs our operations across all Evolve MMA locations. Your job is to own the backend architecture, set the engineering standards, and build the systems that power our next phase: AI-driven member engagement, predictive analytics, and eventually a SaaS product for the martial arts and fitness industry.

You'll work directly with the VP of Data & AI and a frontend developer in a small, high-autonomy team. No layers of management and the freedom to make architectural decisions that matter.

Key responsibilities:

• Own the backend architecture: design the system structure, set coding standards, establish patterns that scale as the team grows.
• Set up engineering infrastructure: CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, Docker containers, deployment workflows. You'll define how code ships.
• Build and extend APIs (REST and GraphQL) powering internal dashboards, a member-facing app, and future SaaS features.
• Design and optimize the database layer: schema design, query optimization, migrations, and data integrity on MySQL (Aurora RDS).
• Build data pipelines for AI features: extract and transform member data for churn prediction models, recommendation engines, and engagement scoring.
• Manage AWS infrastructure: EC2, S3, CloudFront, Lambda, Aurora. You're comfortable in the console and with infrastructure-as-code.
• Implement security and compliance: authentication, access control, PDPA-compliant data handling. You'll be working with sensitive member data.
• Mentor future hires: as the team grows, you'll help onboard and guide junior and mid-level developers joining after you.

What we're looking for:

• 6+ years of backend development with production systems serving real users.
• Deep proficiency in Node.js and TypeScript: this is your primary language, not a secondary skill.
• Strong SQL and database design skills: you've designed schemas, written complex queries, managed migrations, and optimized performance on MySQL or PostgreSQL.
• Hands-on AWS experience: you've deployed, monitored, and maintained production services on AWS (not just used S3 for file uploads).
• CI/CD and DevOps fundamentals: you've set up or maintained deployment pipelines, worked with Docker, and understand automated testing in CI.
• Experience setting up projects from scratch: repo structure, testing frameworks, linting, environment management. You've done this before, not just inherited it.
• Security awareness: authentication (JWT/sessions), input validation, encryption, and data protection are second nature.
• AI/ML integration experience or strong interest: you've worked with ML model APIs, built data pipelines, or are genuinely eager to learn. We're building churn prediction, recommendation engines, and AI-powered automation.

Nice to have:

• Experience building or contributing to a SaaS product.
• Familiarity with GraphQL in production.
• Experience with Redis, message queues, or event-driven architectures.
• Background in fitness, health, education, or membership-based businesses.
• Active user of AI coding tools (Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot) — we're an AI-augmented team.

We're also looking for someone who:

• Wants to build, not manage. This is an IC role. You'll be hands-on coding 80%+ of the time, especially in year one.
• Thrives with autonomy. No one is going to hand you Jira tickets and tell you what to build. You'll work directly with leadership on priorities and own the execution.
• Has opinions but holds them loosely. You have strong views on architecture, testing, and code quality — but you're pragmatic about tradeoffs in a fast-moving environment.
• Moves fast without cutting corners. We ship weekly. That doesn't mean we skip tests or merge broken code — it means we scope smartly and execute efficiently.
• Is genuinely curious about AI. This isn't a buzzword for us. We're building AI-powered products and we use AI tools daily in our development workflow.

Why Join Us:

• Architectural ownership from day one. You're not implementing someone else's design — you're making the decisions that shape the entire backend.
• Real, measurable impact. The systems you build directly affect thousands of users. You'll see the results of your work in business metrics, not just dashboards.
• AI-forward team. We're building churn prediction, personalized recommendations, and AI-powered engagement tools. This is applied AI with real data and real users — not a proof of concept.
• Path to SaaS. The internal platform is the foundation for a SaaS product targeting the martial arts and fitness industry. You'd be a founding engineer of that product.
• No bureaucracy. Small team, direct access to leadership, fast decisions. If something makes sense, we do it.
• Remote-friendly with flexible working arrangements.

What we offer

• Competitive salary and bonus structure
• Comprehensive health and wellness benefits
• Generous paid time off and flexible work arrangements
• Opportunities for professional development and career advancement
• Collaborative and inclusive work environment
• Complimentary martial arts training across all Evolve MMA locations