What are the responsibilities and job description for the Backend Developer - Associate position at Darwins?
About The Team
Clubs App is a stealth startup based in Irvine, California, on a mission to redefine personal growth. We connect people with shared goals through our club-based platform and incentivize long-term improvement with our unique challenge pool system and personalized guidance. Together, our users build lasting habits, achieve their objectives, and thrive in community-driven development.
About The Role
We’re looking for an associate-level Backend Engineer to help build and scale the Clubs App. This in-office role is an opportunity to contribute directly to the server-side architecture and blockchain integration of our core platform. You’ll work with Go (using the Gin framework) and Solana to build secure, performant, and scalable backend systems that power the Clubs experience.
In This Role, You Will
- Design and Implement Backend Systems: Write performant backend code in Go (Gin) to handle business logic, user flows, and challenge mechanics.
- Integrate Blockchain Infrastructure: Collaborate on Solana-based components, including smart contract interaction and secure transaction management.
- Implement Scalable Architectures: Build systems with stateless server design, caching strategies, and message queue support for distributed workloads.
- Ensure High Availability: Monitor, optimize, and maintain infrastructure performance across cloud-native deployments.
- Maintain Code Quality: Deliver clean, testable code; participate in code reviews and uphold strong engineering standards.
- Leverage Third-Party Services: Integrate relevant APIs and services such as authentication, data analytics, and messaging platforms.
- Collaborate In-Person: Work closely with other engineers, product managers, and technical leadership in a highly collaborative, in-office environment.
We’re Seeking Someone With
- Go Proficiency: Hands-on experience developing with Go, ideally using the Gin framework or similar.
- Blockchain Exposure: Familiarity with Solana or interest in working on blockchain-integrated systems.
- Backend System Knowledge: Understanding of building stateless servers, asynchronous task handling, and distributed caching.
- Associate-Level Experience: Solid foundation through internships, personal projects, bootcamps, or early professional experience.
- Strong Debugging Skills: Comfortable analyzing logs, tracing issues, and optimizing queries and APIs for scale.
- Collaborative Mindset: Willingness to contribute in person with humility, curiosity, and a strong sense of ownership.
Nice-to-Haves
- Experience with Redis, MongoDB, and/or Firestore
- Familiarity with message queues (e.g., NATS, RabbitMQ, Kafka)
- Exposure to containerization and infrastructure-as-code tools
- Passion for human behavior, personal growth, or habit design
Why Join Clubs App?
- Impact: Build a first-of-its-kind platform that connects people around personal development and shared challenges.
- Growth: Work closely with experienced founders and engineers on complex, meaningful problems.
- Ownership: Join early and shape the technical foundation and architecture.
- Community: Thrive in an environment where deep thinking, innovation, and technical excellence are celebrated.
Compensation & Benefits
We offer competitive salary and equity packages, along with benefits tailored to support your professional and personal growth. Join us in a flexible, fast-paced, and deeply collaborative in-office setting where you can grow alongside the product and team.
Read all the way to the end? Great — the answer to the last qualification is 22.