The Keep
Reports To:
CTO
Department:
Engineering
Position Type:
Independent Contractor (Fractional)
Travel Expectations:
1-2 days/week onsite in Saint Paul, MN
Location:
Saint Paul, MN (Hybrid)
Date:
December 2025
Role Summary We're building something special for the TTRPG community—a platform that understands the magic of bringing people together around the table. This fractional contractor position is responsible for implementing the backend services, APIs, and infrastructure that power The Keep's event platform. You'll build the resilient, scalable systems that handle everything from user authentication to real‑time event processing, ensuring game masters and organizers can focus on what matters: creating unforgettable experiences for their communities.
We have an aggressive roadmap ahead of us. You'll work directly with the CTO and collaborate with other engineers, Product Management, and UX Designer(s) to ship features weekly—if not daily. This is a high‑autonomy, fast‑paced environment where your work powers real events for real people. If you love building elegant, event‑driven systems and thrive on seeing your infrastructure enable (tens of) thousands of gaming sessions, this is your table.
Tech Stack You'll be working with modern, production‑grade technologies:
Language:
Go
AWS Services:
Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, EC2, ECS, S3, Cognito
Event Streaming:
Apache Kafka (self‑managed on EC2)
Infrastructure:
Terraform (100% IaC. Everything is code and automated)
Observability:
LGTM stack (Loki, Grafana, Tempo, Mimir)
Deployment:
Automated CI/CD pipeline
Collaboration:
Git workflows with automated testing gates before deployment
Primary Responsibilities 01 | API Development and Implementation:
Design and implement RESTful APIs using AWS Lambda and API Gateway, following established architectural patterns for authentication, validation, error handling, and response formatting. Success is frontend developers shipping features confidently, users experiencing instant responsiveness, and zero API‑related production incidents.
02 | Microservices Development:
Build and maintain serverless microservices that handle discrete business logic domains within our event‑driven architecture. Success is services running reliably at scale, clear domain boundaries that accelerate development, and minimal cross‑service coupling.
03 | Event Consumer Implementation:
Develop Kafka event consumers that process asynchronous events, update data stores, trigger workflows, and maintain system consistency across services. Success is zero data loss, sub‑second event processing, proper error recovery, and the ability to replay events to reconstruct system state.
04 | Data Modeling and Database Management:
Design and implement DynamoDB data models optimized for access patterns, ensuring efficient queries and appropriate use of indexes. Success is consistently fast queries regardless of data volume, efficient cost scaling, and data models that evolve cleanly with new features.
05 | Infrastructure as Code:
Maintain and extend infrastructure definitions using Terraform in our fully automated, 100% IaC environment where all changes are made through code—humans do not have direct access to control planes. Success is deployment reliability, infrastructure that documents itself, seamless environment provisioning, and zero manual infrastructure changes.
Secondary or Additional Responsibilities 01 | DevOps and CI/CD:
Contribute to continuous integration and deployment pipelines, ensuring automated testing, builds, and deployments across multiple repositories. Success is pipelines that just work, deploying multiple times daily with confidence, and reduced time from commit to production.
02 | Monitoring and Observability:
Implement logging, metrics, and tracing using the LGTM stack to enable proactive issue detection and debugging. Success is catching issues before users notice them, diagnosing problems in minutes instead of hours, and having the data to optimize performance continuously.
03 | Container Management:
Maintain and deploy containerized services using ECS where appropriate for workloads that don't fit the serverless model. Success is containers running reliably, efficient resource utilization, and proper orchestration that scales with demand.
04 | Security and Compliance:
Implement security best practices including IAM policies, encryption, secret management, and API authentication/authorization. Success is zero security incidents, passing security audits, adherence to least‑privilege principles, and users trusting us with their community's data.
Key Competencies, Skills or Abilities 01 | Architectural Pattern Execution:
Ability to implement backend services following established event‑driven and microservices patterns without requiring constant oversight, and work effectively within a fully automated, IaC‑first environment where all infrastructure changes are made through code.
02 | AWS Serverless Proficiency:
Strong working knowledge of AWS Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, and related serverless services.
03 | Event‑Driven Architecture Understanding:
Demonstrated experience building systems with message queues, event streams, or pub/sub patterns.
04 | Problem Decomposition:
Ability to break down complex features into discrete services, APIs, and data models that fit within the existing architecture.
05 | Debugging and Troubleshooting:
Strong analytical skills to diagnose distributed system issues, trace problems across service boundaries, and implement fixes independently.
06 | Asynchronous Communication:
Effective written communication and ability to work asynchronously with distributed team members across multiple repositories.
07 | Launch Mindset:
Comfort working in an ambitious, fast‑paced startup environment with evolving requirements, aggressive deadlines, and the thrill of shipping to production weekly. If you get energized by building systems that enable thousands of gaming sessions, seeing your APIs process real events within days—or even hours!—of writing them, and knowing your infrastructure decisions directly impact community experiences, you'll love it here.
Experiences: Required
3+ years of professional backend development experience
Proficiency with Go (Golang) for backend development
Hands‑on experience with AWS services (Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, or similar)
Demonstrated experience building RESTful APIs in production environments
Experience with event‑driven architectures, message queues, or stream processing
Working knowledge of database design and query optimization
Experience with Git and collaborative development workflows
Familiarity with infrastructure as code concepts
Experiences: Nice to Have
Specific experience with Apache Kafka or AWS Kinesis
Experience with Terraform for infrastructure as code
Background with ECS/Docker containerization
Experience with microservices architecture in production systems
Familiarity with CI/CD tools and practices (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, etc.)
Experience working in early‑stage startups or on MVP products
Background in event management, community platforms, or social applications
Active participation in the TTRPG community
—if you've ever organized game nights, managed multi‑table events, built tools to track campaign logistics, or debugged why the party split up in the dungeon, you understand the systems thinking and community dynamics we're building for
Genuine love for the hobby
—we're building for a community we're part of. If you know the satisfaction of a well‑architected campaign, the importance of reliable systems when coordinating dozens of players, or the joy of seeing community infrastructure just work so people can focus on rolling dice, you'll bring that understanding to every API endpoint and event consumer you build
] #J-18808-Ljbffr
CTO
Department:
Engineering
Position Type:
Independent Contractor (Fractional)
Travel Expectations:
1-2 days/week onsite in Saint Paul, MN
Location:
Saint Paul, MN (Hybrid)
Date:
December 2025
Role Summary We're building something special for the TTRPG community—a platform that understands the magic of bringing people together around the table. This fractional contractor position is responsible for implementing the backend services, APIs, and infrastructure that power The Keep's event platform. You'll build the resilient, scalable systems that handle everything from user authentication to real‑time event processing, ensuring game masters and organizers can focus on what matters: creating unforgettable experiences for their communities.
We have an aggressive roadmap ahead of us. You'll work directly with the CTO and collaborate with other engineers, Product Management, and UX Designer(s) to ship features weekly—if not daily. This is a high‑autonomy, fast‑paced environment where your work powers real events for real people. If you love building elegant, event‑driven systems and thrive on seeing your infrastructure enable (tens of) thousands of gaming sessions, this is your table.
Tech Stack You'll be working with modern, production‑grade technologies:
Language:
Go
AWS Services:
Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, EC2, ECS, S3, Cognito
Event Streaming:
Apache Kafka (self‑managed on EC2)
Infrastructure:
Terraform (100% IaC. Everything is code and automated)
Observability:
LGTM stack (Loki, Grafana, Tempo, Mimir)
Deployment:
Automated CI/CD pipeline
Collaboration:
Git workflows with automated testing gates before deployment
Primary Responsibilities 01 | API Development and Implementation:
Design and implement RESTful APIs using AWS Lambda and API Gateway, following established architectural patterns for authentication, validation, error handling, and response formatting. Success is frontend developers shipping features confidently, users experiencing instant responsiveness, and zero API‑related production incidents.
02 | Microservices Development:
Build and maintain serverless microservices that handle discrete business logic domains within our event‑driven architecture. Success is services running reliably at scale, clear domain boundaries that accelerate development, and minimal cross‑service coupling.
03 | Event Consumer Implementation:
Develop Kafka event consumers that process asynchronous events, update data stores, trigger workflows, and maintain system consistency across services. Success is zero data loss, sub‑second event processing, proper error recovery, and the ability to replay events to reconstruct system state.
04 | Data Modeling and Database Management:
Design and implement DynamoDB data models optimized for access patterns, ensuring efficient queries and appropriate use of indexes. Success is consistently fast queries regardless of data volume, efficient cost scaling, and data models that evolve cleanly with new features.
05 | Infrastructure as Code:
Maintain and extend infrastructure definitions using Terraform in our fully automated, 100% IaC environment where all changes are made through code—humans do not have direct access to control planes. Success is deployment reliability, infrastructure that documents itself, seamless environment provisioning, and zero manual infrastructure changes.
Secondary or Additional Responsibilities 01 | DevOps and CI/CD:
Contribute to continuous integration and deployment pipelines, ensuring automated testing, builds, and deployments across multiple repositories. Success is pipelines that just work, deploying multiple times daily with confidence, and reduced time from commit to production.
02 | Monitoring and Observability:
Implement logging, metrics, and tracing using the LGTM stack to enable proactive issue detection and debugging. Success is catching issues before users notice them, diagnosing problems in minutes instead of hours, and having the data to optimize performance continuously.
03 | Container Management:
Maintain and deploy containerized services using ECS where appropriate for workloads that don't fit the serverless model. Success is containers running reliably, efficient resource utilization, and proper orchestration that scales with demand.
04 | Security and Compliance:
Implement security best practices including IAM policies, encryption, secret management, and API authentication/authorization. Success is zero security incidents, passing security audits, adherence to least‑privilege principles, and users trusting us with their community's data.
Key Competencies, Skills or Abilities 01 | Architectural Pattern Execution:
Ability to implement backend services following established event‑driven and microservices patterns without requiring constant oversight, and work effectively within a fully automated, IaC‑first environment where all infrastructure changes are made through code.
02 | AWS Serverless Proficiency:
Strong working knowledge of AWS Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, and related serverless services.
03 | Event‑Driven Architecture Understanding:
Demonstrated experience building systems with message queues, event streams, or pub/sub patterns.
04 | Problem Decomposition:
Ability to break down complex features into discrete services, APIs, and data models that fit within the existing architecture.
05 | Debugging and Troubleshooting:
Strong analytical skills to diagnose distributed system issues, trace problems across service boundaries, and implement fixes independently.
06 | Asynchronous Communication:
Effective written communication and ability to work asynchronously with distributed team members across multiple repositories.
07 | Launch Mindset:
Comfort working in an ambitious, fast‑paced startup environment with evolving requirements, aggressive deadlines, and the thrill of shipping to production weekly. If you get energized by building systems that enable thousands of gaming sessions, seeing your APIs process real events within days—or even hours!—of writing them, and knowing your infrastructure decisions directly impact community experiences, you'll love it here.
Experiences: Required
3+ years of professional backend development experience
Proficiency with Go (Golang) for backend development
Hands‑on experience with AWS services (Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, or similar)
Demonstrated experience building RESTful APIs in production environments
Experience with event‑driven architectures, message queues, or stream processing
Working knowledge of database design and query optimization
Experience with Git and collaborative development workflows
Familiarity with infrastructure as code concepts
Experiences: Nice to Have
Specific experience with Apache Kafka or AWS Kinesis
Experience with Terraform for infrastructure as code
Background with ECS/Docker containerization
Experience with microservices architecture in production systems
Familiarity with CI/CD tools and practices (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, etc.)
Experience working in early‑stage startups or on MVP products
Background in event management, community platforms, or social applications
Active participation in the TTRPG community
—if you've ever organized game nights, managed multi‑table events, built tools to track campaign logistics, or debugged why the party split up in the dungeon, you understand the systems thinking and community dynamics we're building for
Genuine love for the hobby
—we're building for a community we're part of. If you know the satisfaction of a well‑architected campaign, the importance of reliable systems when coordinating dozens of players, or the joy of seeing community infrastructure just work so people can focus on rolling dice, you'll bring that understanding to every API endpoint and event consumer you build
] #J-18808-Ljbffr