{"id":1085548,"url":"https://alion.io/job/userwise-principal-server-engineer-2","title":"Principal Server Engineer","company":{"id":687000,"name":"UserWise","domain":"userwise.io","url":"https://alion.io/company/userwise","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workable","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":95,"open_postings":10,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":168,"computed_at":"2026-11-08T05:47:12Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"remote","remote_scope":"stated_countries","remote_scope_basis":"board_field","remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"inferred","locations":[],"countries":[],"hiring_countries":["HU","RO","RS","ES","TR"],"hiring_countries_total":5,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":42000,"max_usd":125000,"period":"year","method":"global_role_cell_scaled_by_country","sample_n":2257},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"CI/CD","optional":true},{"name":"CockroachDB","optional":true},{"name":"Datadog","optional":true},{"name":"GCP","optional":true},{"name":"GitHub Actions","optional":true},{"name":"GitLab CI","optional":true},{"name":"Go","optional":true},{"name":"gRPC","optional":true},{"name":"KeyDB","optional":true},{"name":"Lua","optional":true},{"name":"Memcached","optional":true},{"name":"Nakama","optional":true},{"name":"PostgreSQL","optional":true},{"name":"Prometheus","optional":true},{"name":"Python","optional":true},{"name":"Redis","optional":true},{"name":"TypeScript","optional":true},{"name":"WebSockets","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-21T08:40:33Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-21","last_verified_at":"2026-11-08T11:19:05Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":48,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":[],"days_open":48},"description":"About the Role\nWe're looking for a Principal Server Engineer to own the backend systems powering our live games - services currently supporting 1M+ DAU. You'll be responsible for performance, scalability, and reliability at the core of our infrastructure, working closely with the engineering team on everything from schema design to incident response.\nExperience: 8+ years\nNice to Have\nCI/CD and DevOps experience (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI) plus monitoring/alerting (Prometheus, Datadog)\nStrong grasp of networking protocols - WebSockets, gRPC/HTTP2, UDP/TCP tuning for low-latency real-time systems\nRequirements\nResponsibilities\nDesign, build, and maintain Go/Python backend services for live, high-traffic game titles, including server-authoritative logic and runtime modules on Nakama\nExtend and operate Nakama (Heroic Labs) for core game services: authentication, matchmaking, leaderboards, storage, RPCs, and realtime multiplayer\nOwn database schema design and query performance across PostgreSQL systems, including Nakama's storage layer\nDrive horizontal scaling strategy (Nakama clustering, stateless services), optimizing CPU/memory footprint and reducing lock contention over vertical scaling\nProfile and resolve memory leaks, CPU spikes, and deadlocks in production\nLead root-cause investigations for performance issues and outages, from detection through resolution\nArchitect and maintain in-memory caching/state layers (Redis/KeyDB/Memcached)\nDesign and run load tests against Nakama and supporting services to surface breaking points ahead of release\nRequirements\nCrucial\nDeep Go & Python expertise: language internals, execution models, and performance tuning (goroutine management, GC tuning, zero-allocation techniques)\nStrong PostgreSQL fluency: scalable schema design, query plan analysis, index strategy optimization, with real examples of resolving bottlenecks via data layout or query architecture changes (experience with Nakama's storage layer or CockroachDB a plus)\nProven experience scaling systems supporting 350k+ DAU, with a horizontal-scaling-first philosophy (efficient serialization/deserialization via Protobuf/MsgPack, reduced lock contention)\nHands-on profiling experience: identifying and resolving memory leaks, CPU spikes, and deadlocks\nAt least 2 concrete examples of complex production performance issues or outages, including root cause analysis and resolution methodology\nAt least 2 released production projects as a core backend engineer handling live traffic\nImportant\nPractical experience with Nakama (Heroic Labs): custom Go runtime modules (Lua/TypeScript a plus), matchmaker, storage engine, realtime sockets, and running Nakama clusters in production\nHands-on experience with Redis, KeyDB, or Memcached: caching, rate-limiting, state management, including cache stampede mitigation, serialization overhead, and eviction policy design\nSolid TDD/BDD judgment and practical load-testing experience (e.g., Artillery), including realtime/socket workloads\nPractical GCP/Google App Engine experience: deploying, monitoring, and scaling serverless/container 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