Backend Engineer — Real-Time Logistics & Payments Platform

About the Role We are looking for a Backend Engineer to join our engineering team on a long-term, month-to-month basis to help build, maintain, and scale a production logistics and errand-service platform. The application includes functionality similar to modern ride-hailing, delivery, and on-demand platforms, including real-time driver/rider tracking, geolocation, trip management, KYC verification, messaging, notifications, wallets, and escrow/split-payment workflows. This is a hands-on backend engineering role for someone who can work independently within an existing production codebase, develop reliable APIs and services, troubleshoot complex issues, and contribute to the continued growth of the platform. You will work closely with frontend/mobile engineers, other backend engineers, and product stakeholders to deliver new features, improve existing systems, and maintain a reliable production environment. ─── Responsibilities Backend Development & API Engineering • Design, develop, test, and maintain scalable backend services and REST APIs. • Build APIs supporting: ◦ User registration and authentication ◦ Driver/rider onboarding ◦ KYC verification ◦ Trip and errand creation ◦ Driver assignment ◦ Trip lifecycle and status management ◦ Location updates ◦ Chat and messaging ◦ Push notifications ◦ Payments and transactions ◦ Wallets and balances ◦ Ratings and reviews • Implement authentication, authorization, validation, error handling, and security controls. • Develop clean and well-documented API contracts for mobile and frontend applications. • Work with the existing backend architecture and improve it where necessary. • Participate in technical design and implementation discussions. • Write clean, maintainable, testable, and production-ready code. Real-Time Systems & Geolocation A significant part of this role involves supporting real-time location and trip functionality. You will: • Develop and maintain WebSocket-based or equivalent real-time communication systems. • Process driver/rider location updates efficiently. • Support live location tracking between mobile clients and backend services. • Handle trip state synchronization across multiple users and devices. • Design efficient location-update strategies to minimize unnecessary database and infrastructure load. • Process geospatial data and location events. • Handle WebSocket connections, reconnections, presence, and event delivery. • Troubleshoot real-time communication issues. • Help improve the reliability and scalability of real-time services. • Work with Google Maps, Mapbox, or similar geolocation services where required. Experience with high-frequency GPS/location updates and real-time applications is highly valuable. ─── Payments, Wallets & Escrow You will work on backend systems responsible for financial transactions and payment workflows. Responsibilities include: • Payment initiation and processing. • Escrow-style transaction workflows. • Split payments. • Wallet balances and transactions. • Driver/vendor payouts. • Platform commissions. • Refunds and reversals. • Payment verification. • Payment webhooks. • Transaction reconciliation. • Failed, pending, and completed transaction handling. • Transaction state management. • Idempotent payment processing. • Maintaining accurate transaction records and audit trails. Experience with payment providers such as: • Stripe • Paystack • Flutterwave • Adyen • Or similar payment platforms is strongly preferred. You should understand the importance of idempotency, transaction integrity, webhook reliability, reconciliation, security, and failure handling when working with financial systems. ─── KYC & Identity Verification You will implement and maintain integrations with third-party KYC and identity-verification providers. Experience with any of the following is valuable: • Dojah • Smile Identity • YouVerify • Prembly • Persona • Onfido • Similar identity-verification platforms Responsibilities may include: • Identity verification workflows. • Document verification. • BVN/NIN or equivalent identity checks. • Verification status management. • Verification webhooks. • Retry and failure handling. • Secure handling of verification information. • Designing reliable onboarding workflows around asynchronous verification processes. ─── Database Engineering You will contribute to the design, performance, and reliability of the application's data layer. Responsibilities include: • Database schema design and modification. • Data modeling. • SQL query development and optimization. • Index design and optimization. • Transaction management. • Data integrity. • Database migrations. • Performance troubleshooting. • Connection pooling. • Identifying inefficient queries and database bottlenecks. • Supporting backup and recovery strategies where required. Experience with PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, or other production SQL/NoSQL databases is required. Strong SQL skills are highly preferred. ─── Production Reliability & Troubleshooting The platform is actively used and continuously evolving, so reliability is important. You will: • Investigate and resolve production issues. • Troubleshoot API failures and unexpected application behavior. • Identify backend performance bottlenecks. • Optimize API response times. • Diagnose database performance issues. • Improve logging and observability. • Implement appropriate retry and error-handling mechanisms. • Monitor backend services and identify recurring problems. • Participate in root-cause analysis. • Implement permanent fixes rather than repeatedly addressing symptoms. • Support deployments and production releases when required. You should be comfortable debugging issues across application code, databases, APIs, third-party services, and infrastructure. ─── Full-Stack Collaboration Although this is primarily a backend position, you will work closely with React Native/Expo frontend engineers. You should be comfortable: • Understanding how mobile applications consume backend APIs. • Debugging API integration issues. • Reviewing API requests and responses. • Understanding authentication and authorization flows. • Troubleshooting frontend/backend communication problems. • Collaborating on API changes. • Helping frontend engineers understand backend behavior and limitations. You do not need to be a frontend specialist, but you should have enough frontend knowledge to collaborate effectively with mobile engineers. ─── Cloud & DevOps Experience with cloud infrastructure and deployment processes is highly desirable. You may work with technologies such as: • AWS • GCP • Docker • GitHub Actions • CI/CD pipelines • Cloud databases • Redis • Message queues • Application monitoring • Centralized logging • Infrastructure and deployment automation You should understand the fundamentals of deploying, operating, and troubleshooting backend applications in a production environment. ─── Required Qualifications We are looking for someone with: • 3+ years of professional backend development experience. • Strong experience designing and developing REST APIs. • Good understanding of backend architecture and system design. • Experience building or maintaining production applications. • Experience with real-time communication technologies such as WebSockets. • Experience working with geolocation or location-based systems. • Strong database design and SQL skills. • Experience integrating third-party APIs and services. • Experience working with payment gateways or financial transaction systems. • Experience implementing authentication and authorization. • Strong Git/GitHub experience. • Ability to understand and contribute to an existing codebase. • Strong debugging and problem-solving skills. • Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively with the wider engineering team. ─── Preferred Qualifications Candidates with the following experience will be strongly considered: • Experience building ride-hailing, delivery, logistics, marketplace, or on-demand applications. • Experience with real-time tracking systems. • Experience processing high-frequency GPS/location data. • Experience with escrow or marketplace payment systems. • Experience with Dojah or similar KYC platforms. • Experience with Paystack, Flutterwave, Stripe, or similar payment providers. • Strong Node.js / TypeScript experience. • Strong PostgreSQL experience. • Experience with Redis. • Experience with message queues or event-driven architectures. • AWS or GCP experience. • Docker and CI/CD experience. • Google Maps or Mapbox experience. • Experience with monitoring and observability tools. • Experience working in startup or fast-paced product environments. ─── What We Expect From You We are looking for an engineer who can take ownership of backend tasks and deliver without requiring constant supervision. You should be able to: • Understand an unfamiliar codebase quickly. • Translate product requirements into technical solutions. • Design and implement APIs independently. • Write clean and maintainable backend code. • Debug issues systematically. • Understand the implications of database and architectural decisions. • Identify potential performance and scalability issues. • Work effectively with asynchronous workflows. • Build reliable integrations with external services. • Communicate clearly with other engineers. • Ask questions when requirements are unclear. • Take ownership of assigned features from development through deployment. • Be proactive about identifying technical problems. • Meet agreed timelines and communicate blockers early. ─── Engagement Details Position: Backend Engineer Engagement: Long-term, month-to-month Work Arrangement: Remote Start Date: Immediate Schedule: Consistent availability required Collaboration: Regular standups, technical discussions, code reviews, and project check-ins Duration: Ongoing, based on performance and project requirements This is intended to be a long-term engagement, rather than a one-time project. Successful performance may lead to increased responsibilities and involvement in the backend architecture and development roadmap. ─── What to Include in Your Upwork Proposal Please include the following: 1. A brief introduction about yourself. 2. Your total years of professional backend development experience. 3. Your primary backend technology stack. 4. Links to at least two production backend systems or APIs you have built or maintained. 5. Examples of real-time systems you have worked on. 6. Examples of geolocation, logistics, delivery, or ride-hailing systems you have worked on. 7. Examples of payment gateway integrations you have implemented. 8. Examples of escrow, wallet, split-payment, or marketplace payment workflows you have built. 9. Examples of KYC or identity-verification integrations. 10. Your GitHub or portfolio. 11. Your experience with AWS/GCP, Docker, and CI/CD. 12. Your timezone. 13. Your weekly availability. 14. Your expected monthly rate for a long-term engagement. Important Application Instruction Please begin your proposal with: "Backend Engineer — Real-Time Systems" This helps us identify candidates who have carefully read the job description. ─── Ideal Candidate The ideal candidate is a practical, reliable, and technically strong backend engineer who enjoys solving real-world engineering problems. You should be comfortable working on systems where real-time communication, geolocation, financial transactions, third-party integrations, databases, and production reliability all intersect. You don't need to know every technology listed above. What matters most is your ability to learn quickly, understand existing systems, write quality backend code, troubleshoot effectively, and take ownership of your work. If you enjoy building production systems, solving challenging backend problems, and working as part of a collaborative engineering team, we would like to hear from you.