BackendLead(Node.js)

Join us as a Backend Lead and drive the development of the backend platform behind one of the fastest-growing AI products in the US market. We are looking for a strong technical leader who combines deep expertise in high-load system architecture with hands-on experience in building and scaling engineering teams. In this role, you will have true ownership of our AI Gateway, generative pipelines, and mission-critical backend services powering a product already trusted by more than 1.5 million users. Zeely AI is an AI-powered platform that helps small businesses create viral UGC videos, advertising banners, and high-performing campaigns across Meta and TikTok, making it easier for entrepreneurs to grow and scale their businesses. Your key responsibilities: - Lead the Backend Department, driving team growth, planning, estimations, code reviews, mentoring, and engineers' performance management - Define the architectural vision and ensure the reliability, scalability, and performance of the backend platform - Develop and evolve our AI orchestration layer across multiple models and providers, optimizing generation quality, latency, and cost efficiency - Own the evolution of the AI Gateway — the core platform component powering text, image, voice, avatar, and video generation - Scale infrastructure and backend services to support product growth and increasing workloads - Maintain high engineering standards in code quality, security, observability, and operational excellence - Deliver strategic AI initiatives, including our proprietary RAG pipeline, MCP integrations, and AI agent capabilities - Collaborate closely with Frontend, Mobile, QA, AI Engineering, and DevOps teams to achieve business goals - Partner with the Principal Engineer on infrastructure capacity planning and cost optimization What we’re looking for: - 7+ years of commercial experience with Node.js - 3+ years of experience in a Lead, Team Lead, or Engineering Manager role with direct people management respons