Schedule: MUST be willing to work Eastern (EST) time zone hours, regardless of location.
Job Summary:As a Senior Backend Engineer, you will be reporting to the Vice President of Engineering and would be a key member of Real's R&D team. You will operate in an AI-first environment leveraging tools like Claude Code to translate product ideas into production-ready systems. You will help lead the overall technical vision for all things back-end, implementing features, squashing bugs, and making improvements across our Java Spring Microservices. You would also drive adoption of AI-assisted development practices within the backend engineering team. If you are self-motivated and a tech expert to join a results-oriented team, we encourage you to join us.
This role is not just about writing code; it's about:
- Designing scalable systems
- Validating and owning AI-assisted code
- Driving technical excellence across the team
What You'll Do:- Collaborate with other engineers through pairing sessions, code reviews, and knowledge sharing in our weekly Friday Dev Chats.
- Mentor and lead junior engineers in software engineering methodology, design, and best practices.
- Work with the product team and feature owners to understand requirements and see them through to execution and deployment.
What You'll Bring:- You have extensive experience with Java 17+ (we are migrating toward Java 21), Spring Boot 3.x, JPA/Hibernate 6, and SQL relational databases.
- You are comfortable writing unit and integration tests and maintaining strong code coverage
- You have experience designing event-driven microservices and applying patterns such as Domain-Driven Design (DDD), hexagonal (ports & adapters) architecture, and CQRS.
- You have in-depth knowledge of relational databases, including indices, connection pools, transactions (ACID), and implications of schema designs on performance
- You have experience with NoSQL databases, understand their advantages and disadvantages, and know when to prefer one over a relational database.
- You are opinionated in the direction that backend software development is going and will give recommendations and take the initiative for the long-term health of the project.
- You have a keen eye for where to refactor and when, using standard design principles and patterns, and are excited to lead the team on the path to better code
- You are welcoming to other engineers, have a collaborative attitude, and are excited to both learn and teach new knowledge
- You enjoy working with a remote team that spans many different time zones and locations
- You are comfortable in an agile, fast-paced startup environment where you work closely with product to understand how your work will fit into the larger project while acting on limited information
Our Tech Stack- Java 17+
- Spring Boot 3.x+
- Postgres
- Kafka
- DynamoDB
- Redis
- OpenSearch
- AWS
- Docker
- Kubernetes
- Datadog
- ArgoCD
- TeamCity
AI-Assisted Development- Real operates in an AI-first engineering environment - our backend engineers use AI coding assistants and agentic developer tools every day, wired into our internal systems.
- Hands-on experience with AI coding assistants such as Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex (or similar) in real development workflows
- Familiarity with agentic / CLI-based AI workflows and Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations that connect AI tools to internal systems (e.g., GitHub, Datadog, issue tracking, SonarQube)
- Experience applying AI to accelerate code review, test generation, and documentation, not just code completion.
- Ability to critically evaluate generated code; identify incorrect or suboptimal outputs; refactor AI-generated code for production readiness
- Strong judgment on when to use AI vs manual implementation; trade-offs between speed and correctness; validating and owning AI-assisted code before it ships to production
- We are empowered through our strong test coverage to allow continuous delivery with multiple deploys per day.
Education and Experience:- BA/BS degree and 8+ years of related experience; or any combination of education and experience, which would provide an equivalent background
- Must have experience in Spring/Spring Boot, Hibernate, and Relational Databases
- A real estate background with transferable skills would be an asset
- Demonstrated Project Coordination/Management skills
How We Work: Our Operating PrinciplesOur Operating Principles are the blueprint of Real's culture. They guide how we show up, make decisions, and bring our mission to life every day:
- Be Agent Obsessed: We design every decision around creating value for our agents and their clients.
- Move Fast with Purpose: We act with urgency, clarity, and focus-without compromising our standards.
- Own Your Outcome: Effort matters, but results matter more. We adapt, learn, and improve.
- Be Bold; Challenge Often: We challenge assumptions, rethink "the usual," and push for smarter, simpler solutions.
- Win Together: We set high standards, collaborate deeply, and celebrate shared success.
Additional Details:- Location Requirements: Candidates must be based in the United States to be considered.
- Physical Requirements: Ability to sit for long periods of time.
