Wonderfil
Full Time Employment | Hybrid in Santa Cruz, CA
About Wonderfil
Wonderfil builds smart refill stations that eliminate single-use plastics. Our IoT-powered machines dispense shampoo, detergent, and other household essentials across major retailers and universities. We’re scaling rapidly and looking for a Senior Backend / Cloud Engineer to design and build the foundation of our server-side systems — from infrastructure to APIs — powering the next generation of our connected refill ecosystem. Role Overview
This is a foundational role. You’ll architect and implement Wonderfil’s cloud and backend platform from the ground up — spanning infrastructure, APIs, and data systems. You’ll collaborate closely with the software and hardware teams, but this will be your domain to shape: defining standards, selecting the right tools and services, and building a backend that’s secure, scalable, and easy to grow on. You’ll also be hands‑on, writing clean, maintainable, and well‑tested code that sets the standard for how we build. Compensation
Wonderfil is a rapidly growing, venture‑backed climate‑tech startup, and we’re looking for someone who’s excited to grow with us over the long term. Our compensation package includes a competitive salary, generous stock options, and a full suite of benefits designed to support both your work and life. Salary: $140,000+ DOE, plus equity options in a high‑growth public benefit corporation Benefits: Health insurance, unlimited PTO, paid holidays, and flexible work arrangements You’ll have the opportunity to take ownership of core backend systems powering a national refill network—your work will directly shape the infrastructure eliminating single‑use plastics across campuses and retailers nationwide. What You’ll Do
Platform & Infrastructure
Evaluate our current platform and design a scalable, maintainable cloud architecture balancing performance, cost, and growth. Choose and configure the right mix of services (e.g., ECS, Lambda, API Gateway, RDS, S3, CloudFront, IAM, or equivalents) based on best fit — not preset tooling. Implement Infrastructure as Code (e.g., CDK, Terraform, or Pulumi) to ensure consistent, reproducible environments. Oversee domain and certificate management (Route 53, SSL/TLS) as part of infrastructure ownership. Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines with automated testing, deployments, and safe rollbacks. Database & Data Management
Design and maintain a relational database schema (PostgreSQL) as the system of record. Migrate existing NoSQL data (DynamoDB) where appropriate into the new schema. Implement secure backups, replication, migrations, and retention policies. Collaborate with the software team to model data entities that align with IoT devices, customers, and transactions. Design and implement secure, high‑performance REST or GraphQL APIs powering IoT machines, mobile apps, and internal tools. Develop backend services for payments, subscriptions, credit balances, and receipts (integrating with providers like Stripe). Support internal tools for device configuration, asset management, and reporting — owning the backend and data layer; front‑end development handled collaboratively. Integrate with third‑party APIs (ERPs, CRMs, analytics, payments, etc.). Implement authentication and authorization (OAuth2, Cognito, JWT, or mutual TLS). DevOps & Observability
Establish monitoring, logging, and alerting pipelines using tools such as CloudWatch, Grafana, or Datadog. Implement telemetry and anomaly detection for proactive issue resolution. Integrate auditing and compliance monitoring for transparency and reliability. Set up deployment strategies that enable zero‑downtime releases and automated rollbacks. Security & Compliance
Implement security best practices aligned with standards such as PCI DSS, GDPR/CCPA, and SOC 2. Manage key rotation, secrets, IAM policies, and encryption in transit and at rest. Build systems that meet security and privacy expectations without personally managing audits or legal compliance. Align architecture with frameworks like AWS Well‑Architected or NIST for long‑term security posture. Data & Analytics Enablement
Build data pipelines for aggregating telemetry and usage data to support future analytics and forecasting. Collaborate with data or product teams to enable insights and predictive capabilities — not required to design ML models directly. Additional Ownership
Own the backend and cloud domain — set technical direction, document decisions, and mentor others as the team grows. Work closely with the software and hardware teams to ensure seamless IoT‑to‑cloud integration. Provide input on future backend and DevOps hiring needs as the platform scales. Communicate progress, trade‑offs, and priorities directly to leadership. Required Skills & Experience
5+ years of experience building and maintaining production backend systems. Proficiency in one or more modern backend languages such as Python, Go, TypeScript (Node.js), or Java — and the ability to choose and justify the right tool for each problem. Strong understanding of cloud platforms, preferably AWS (experience with ECS, Lambda, RDS, API Gateway, S3, or equivalents). Deep experience with PostgreSQL and relational database design. Proven experience with Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD, and cloud networking. Familiarity with IoT protocols (MQTT, device shadows, telemetry ingestion). Working knowledge of DNS, SSL/TLS, and domain management. Comfortable operating autonomously, balancing pragmatism with scalability. Interest in sustainability and technology that reduces waste. Preferred/Nice to Have
Experience with data pipelines, analytics, or machine learning. Background in IoT hardware integration or edge computing. Some front‑end experience for internal tools.
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About Wonderfil
Wonderfil builds smart refill stations that eliminate single-use plastics. Our IoT-powered machines dispense shampoo, detergent, and other household essentials across major retailers and universities. We’re scaling rapidly and looking for a Senior Backend / Cloud Engineer to design and build the foundation of our server-side systems — from infrastructure to APIs — powering the next generation of our connected refill ecosystem. Role Overview
This is a foundational role. You’ll architect and implement Wonderfil’s cloud and backend platform from the ground up — spanning infrastructure, APIs, and data systems. You’ll collaborate closely with the software and hardware teams, but this will be your domain to shape: defining standards, selecting the right tools and services, and building a backend that’s secure, scalable, and easy to grow on. You’ll also be hands‑on, writing clean, maintainable, and well‑tested code that sets the standard for how we build. Compensation
Wonderfil is a rapidly growing, venture‑backed climate‑tech startup, and we’re looking for someone who’s excited to grow with us over the long term. Our compensation package includes a competitive salary, generous stock options, and a full suite of benefits designed to support both your work and life. Salary: $140,000+ DOE, plus equity options in a high‑growth public benefit corporation Benefits: Health insurance, unlimited PTO, paid holidays, and flexible work arrangements You’ll have the opportunity to take ownership of core backend systems powering a national refill network—your work will directly shape the infrastructure eliminating single‑use plastics across campuses and retailers nationwide. What You’ll Do
Platform & Infrastructure
Evaluate our current platform and design a scalable, maintainable cloud architecture balancing performance, cost, and growth. Choose and configure the right mix of services (e.g., ECS, Lambda, API Gateway, RDS, S3, CloudFront, IAM, or equivalents) based on best fit — not preset tooling. Implement Infrastructure as Code (e.g., CDK, Terraform, or Pulumi) to ensure consistent, reproducible environments. Oversee domain and certificate management (Route 53, SSL/TLS) as part of infrastructure ownership. Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines with automated testing, deployments, and safe rollbacks. Database & Data Management
Design and maintain a relational database schema (PostgreSQL) as the system of record. Migrate existing NoSQL data (DynamoDB) where appropriate into the new schema. Implement secure backups, replication, migrations, and retention policies. Collaborate with the software team to model data entities that align with IoT devices, customers, and transactions. Design and implement secure, high‑performance REST or GraphQL APIs powering IoT machines, mobile apps, and internal tools. Develop backend services for payments, subscriptions, credit balances, and receipts (integrating with providers like Stripe). Support internal tools for device configuration, asset management, and reporting — owning the backend and data layer; front‑end development handled collaboratively. Integrate with third‑party APIs (ERPs, CRMs, analytics, payments, etc.). Implement authentication and authorization (OAuth2, Cognito, JWT, or mutual TLS). DevOps & Observability
Establish monitoring, logging, and alerting pipelines using tools such as CloudWatch, Grafana, or Datadog. Implement telemetry and anomaly detection for proactive issue resolution. Integrate auditing and compliance monitoring for transparency and reliability. Set up deployment strategies that enable zero‑downtime releases and automated rollbacks. Security & Compliance
Implement security best practices aligned with standards such as PCI DSS, GDPR/CCPA, and SOC 2. Manage key rotation, secrets, IAM policies, and encryption in transit and at rest. Build systems that meet security and privacy expectations without personally managing audits or legal compliance. Align architecture with frameworks like AWS Well‑Architected or NIST for long‑term security posture. Data & Analytics Enablement
Build data pipelines for aggregating telemetry and usage data to support future analytics and forecasting. Collaborate with data or product teams to enable insights and predictive capabilities — not required to design ML models directly. Additional Ownership
Own the backend and cloud domain — set technical direction, document decisions, and mentor others as the team grows. Work closely with the software and hardware teams to ensure seamless IoT‑to‑cloud integration. Provide input on future backend and DevOps hiring needs as the platform scales. Communicate progress, trade‑offs, and priorities directly to leadership. Required Skills & Experience
5+ years of experience building and maintaining production backend systems. Proficiency in one or more modern backend languages such as Python, Go, TypeScript (Node.js), or Java — and the ability to choose and justify the right tool for each problem. Strong understanding of cloud platforms, preferably AWS (experience with ECS, Lambda, RDS, API Gateway, S3, or equivalents). Deep experience with PostgreSQL and relational database design. Proven experience with Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD, and cloud networking. Familiarity with IoT protocols (MQTT, device shadows, telemetry ingestion). Working knowledge of DNS, SSL/TLS, and domain management. Comfortable operating autonomously, balancing pragmatism with scalability. Interest in sustainability and technology that reduces waste. Preferred/Nice to Have
Experience with data pipelines, analytics, or machine learning. Background in IoT hardware integration or edge computing. Some front‑end experience for internal tools.
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