Software Engineer

About us

We're building Animates — an AI companion app where the character is the product. Not a chatbot. Not a waifu app. A companion who remembers what you told them three weeks ago, notices you're off before you say so, and is still there on your laptop when you close your phone. They have a face, driven by our own real-time generative animation tech that runs locally on the device.

We’ve shipped — the product is live, the numbers are growing, and we have an active Discord community. We also have an integration with xAI’s Grok, and a CES 2026 demo with Razer behind us. The founding team previously built MSQRD and Loóna.

About the role

We're a team of 27 people, with an engineering team of 10 — each engineer owning a clear focus: iOS, Android, desktop, AI. Yours will be the backend.

It’s live and serving real traffic today. You're not inheriting a blank page, and you're not signing up for maintenance: it's a working system now under pressure. You'll take shared ownership of it, harden what's there, and help decide what the next version looks like.

Concretely, that means the real-time communication layer between the app, our animation models, and LLM providers; the data layer behind companion memory and conversation state; and the operational side — observability, alerting, and knowing what's happening before users tell us.

Joining at this stage means working directly with the founders, shaping how the company grows, and making a real impact. We value expertise, embrace initiative, and empower you to make decisions. Our decision-making is fast — you get freedom to contribute meaningfully rather than wait for approvals.

The stack

• Backend & Web: TypeScript, Node.js, Cloudflare Workers (Durable Objects, KV, AI, etc.)

• Databases: Cloudflare KV, SQL, NoSQL

• Communication: REST API, WebSockets

• Clients (context): iOS, Android, desktop (MacOS, Windows)

What you’ll do

• Share ownership of the production backend with our current backend engineer — design, deploy, monitor, and respond when it breaks.

• Scale real-time systems as traffic grows: latency, throughput, infrastructure cost.

• Build and evolve APIs, WebSockets, and the real-time communication layer between the app, our animation models, and LLM providers.

• Work with Cloudflare Workers (Durable Objects, KV, AI) to keep performance predictable under load.

• Design data storage for companion memory and conversation state — the part that makes the product feel like it remembers you.

• Strengthen how we operate: observability, alerting, incident response, and written documentation of how the system actually works.

• Work with the team to ship features end to end.

We’d love to hear from you if you have

• 5+ years in backend development.

• You think in terms of the product, not the backlog. You listen in on calls with the people building the app around you, notice where things hurt, and write the task yourself — rather than waiting for it to arrive assigned.

• Experience running systems in production under real load — not only building them.

• Strong JavaScript + Node.js, or strong Python / Go / another modern language and readiness to work day-to-day in TypeScript and Node.

• Solid database experience (SQL, NoSQL, KV) and a feel for when the schema is the bottleneck.

• Real-time data processing: WebSockets, event-driven architectures.

• Comfortable deciding without complete information — and revisiting the decision when data arrives.

• Verbal fluency in Russian, Ukrainian, or Belarusian. English B1+.

Nice to have

• You know where the milliseconds go between a user's tap and the response, and you've cut latency in a live real-time system — not just read about it.

• You don't over-engineer, but you always keep a sudden traffic spike in mind and have a plan B ready.

• Cloudflare Workers or other edge compute.

• LLM inference infrastructure, streaming, or context/memory systems.

• Audio pipelines, or consumer products at scale.

What We Offer

• Fully remote across Europe. Optional hub in Warsaw.

• 29 paid non-working days per year.

• Top-of-the-line hardware — latest MacBook or whatever you need.

• Coworking space covered in your location.

• Flexible schedule. We care about results, not hours.

• A shipped product with real users and growing numbers — your work has immediate, measurable impact.

• A small, senior team of engineers, artists, and researchers building something that doesn't exist yet.

Key traits we value

1. Responsibility and Ownership: You take pride in your work, maintain high standards, and own the outcomes of your decisions.

2. Proactivity and Initiative: You seek solutions, propose ideas, and take the lead on challenges.

3. Focus and Consistency: You prioritize steady progress and consistent results over one-off efforts.

4. Collaboration and Openness: You communicate honestly, respect your team, and thrive in an environment of mutual trust.

5. Effective Communication and Problem-Solving: You articulate ideas clearly, break down complex problems into actionable steps, and keep things simple where possible.

Recruitment Process

1. Introductory chat (40 min): your experience, the role, and any questions you have about us.

2. Technical interview (90 min): a live coding session and a discussion of how you approach architecture and real-time systems.

3. Final interview (60 min): how you work, what you want next, and whether we're a match both ways.

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