Ruby Backend Engineer (E2+)

Location: Remote (Worldwide) | Relocation available to Portugal or Japan |

Salary Range: $75,000-100,000.

Role Overview

We're seeking an experienced Backend Engineer who can independently lead consulting projects while maintaining our high engineering standards. This role combines technical excellence with project leadership and client communication.

What Success Looks Like

• Lead technical engagements with startup CTOs and engineering teams
• Make informed architectural decisions while knowing when to consult the team
• Ship high-quality code that meets our established engineering standards
• Navigate complex technical trade-offs
• Guide projects from initial requirements through successful delivery
  
  

Experience We Look For

• Track record of leading technical projects end-to-end
• Strong technical judgment developed through hands-on engineering experience
• Proven ability to communicate effectively with technical and business stakeholders
• Experience making and defending architectural decisions
• History of delivering high-quality solutions under real-world constraints
  
  

About Evil Martians

Evil Martians is a globally distributed product development consultancy working primarily with US-based venture-backed startups. We help developer tool startups design, build, and scale their products while maintaining a strong commitment to open source.

Our team is known in the Ruby community for contributions to Ruby, Rails and our projects, including Ruby on Whales, Action Policy, Lefthook, Overmind, TestProf, and AnyCable. Learn more about our work and culture through our technical blog.

We are an American company, headquartered in New York, with offices and subsidiaries in San Francisco, Lisbon (Portugal) and Osaka (Japan).

What You'll Do

• Build and optimize Ruby/Rails applications
• Work directly with US-based customers, inside their teams, to understand their goals and deliver solutions
• Build out new products, features, SDKs and integrations
• Resolve performance and scalability issues, including database-related (Postgres), GraphQL, caching, WebSockets (AnyCable)
• Optimize developer experience with CI speedup (TestProf), Docker, build tools etc.
  
  

Our Tech Stack

• Primary: Ruby, Ruby on Rails
• Additional: Go, TypeScript, Rust, Python
  
  

Requirements

• Fluent English and Russian: strong verbal and written communication skills
• Deep practical expertise in Ruby and Ruby on Rails
• Strong understanding of testing, profiling, and performance optimization
• Experience with relational databases (PostgreSQL) and caching strategies
• 2-3 hours daily overlap with the US timezones (PST/EST)
• Remote work experience and strong async communication skills
• Experience working in lean methodologies, preferably in startups
• Self-motivated, punctual, humble, reliable, and a team player
  
  

Growth

• New Martians are assigned a mentor to guide their onboarding
• Transparent system of levels, grades and salaries
• A review can be requested up to twice per year, which is when we collect feedback from team members who worked with the person
• After the review, Head of Backend provides feedback, guidance and/or makes a decision on promotion
  
  

How We Work

• We are a team of 50: backend and frontend engineers, designers, SREs, account managers, tech editors
• Projects last from 2 weeks to multiple years
• Project teams are from 1 to 7 people
• We mostly communicate in async (written) form, with a number of planned meetings: project daily syncs and/or weekly meeting, weekly Backend Hour, weekly All Hands on Deck, plus optional/informal coffee groups
  
  

Interview Process

• Code Review: Share your GitHub/samples of your work
• Technical Discussion: 1-hour Zoom chat about your experience
• Take-Home Project: 1-2 days to build something meaningful (often becomes open source)
• Team Culture Chat: Meet your potential teammates
• Final Discussion: Chat with our CEO
  
  

I don't think I'm good enough for these requirements

We've heard this before—even from current team members. If you love technology, learn quickly, and have contributed to open source (including our projects), we want to hear from you. What matters most is your potential and passion for growth!

Equal Employment Opportunity

Evil Martians is an equal opportunity employer. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any type and afford equal opportunities to employees and applicants without regard to race (including natural hairstyles), color, religion, sex/gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. This policy applies to all employment terms, including hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, compensation, and training.

Apply

Email obey-backend@evilmartians.com with a letter in Russian language (just to make sure you speak both languages):

• Your story: Projects you're proud of and your role in them.
• Code samples: GitHub links or gists showing your best work
• Why us: What attracts you to Evil Martians
  
  

Please note that we will respond only to applications sent in the format we ask for. Thank you for understanding.