Job Title

About Meraki LabsMeraki Labs is at the forefront of India's deep-tech innovation landscape, operating as a dynamic venture studio founded by visionary entrepreneur Mukesh Bansal (Founder - Myntra, Cure Fit) and Peeyush Ranjan (Former Google VP and Flipkart CTO). Our mission is to build and rapidly scale AI-first, /"moonshot/" startups—transforming groundbreaking ideas into next-generation industry leaders. Through a hands-on, intensive partnership model, we work closely with exceptional founders, driving these ventures from concept to impact.The RoleWe are looking for a Senior Backend Engineer (5–7 years) who thrives on building the invisible machinery that powers complex applications. You aren't just writing APIs; you are architecting resilient, distributed systems that can handle the rigor of financial transactions at scale. You will act as a high-output IC while providing the architectural /"rails/" and mentorship for a small, high-performance engineering team.What You’ll DoArchitect for Scale: Design and implement robust, scalable backend services using Java).Own the Infrastructure: Build and maintain distributed systems, focusing on microservices architecture, event-driven design, and seamless third-party integrations.System Integrity: Take ownership of system health—optimizing database queries, managing cache layers (Redis/Memcached), and ensuring high availability and fault tolerance.AI Integration: Lead the charge in /"AI-forward/" development. This includes building RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) pipelines, managing vector databases, or optimizing model inference latency within the backend stack.What We’re Looking ForThe Experience: 5 to 7 years in backend development, with a significant portion spent architecting systems from 0 to 1 or scaling them to 10x.The Core: Deep mastery of Java and its ecosystem. You should be comfortable with concurrency, JVM tuning, and asynchronous processing.Architecture Savvy: You understand the trade-offs between SQL (PostgreSQL/MySQL) and NoSQL, and you know how to leverage message brokers (Kafka/RabbitMQ) for decoupled systems.FinTech DNA: You understand the nuances of trust, security, and precision in financial interfaces.AI Curiosity: You have explored the intersection of backend engineering and AI—whether through personal projects using LangChain, fine-tuning models, or building specialized API wrappers for LLMs.Leadership: You enjoy being an Individual Contributor but have the emotional intelligence and technical depth to collaborate with the team.Technical Keywords We ValueLanguages/Frameworks: Java 17+, Spring Boot, Hibernate.Data & Messaging: PostgreSQL, Redis, Kafka, Elasticsearch.DevOps/Cloud: Docker, Kubernetes, AWS/GCP, CI/CD pipelines.AI: Vector DBs (Pinecone/Weaviate), OpenAI API integration, Python (for AI prototyping).Why This Role?Complex Challenges: Solve high-stakes problems where millisecond improvements impact the bottom line.Modern Stack: Work in an environment that values AI experimentation and modern Java practices over legacy maintenance.Impact: As a Lead IC, your architectural decisions will define the company’s technical foundation for years to come.Why Join Us?An opportunity to directly work with founders.High autonomy and ownership of the frontend roadmap.Meaningful ESOP.The chance to build in an AI-native environment.Competitive compensation and the opportunity to shape the engineering culture of a growing team.Interview ProcessTechnical Round 1 - 60 minutesTake Home Assignment + Panel PresentationCulture FitmentThe Recruiter for this role is Ritesh Kalvellu - . You can connect with him for queries about the role.