Senior Software Engineer - GCP

Senior Software Engineer - GCP Developer

- Equity Partner -

Location: Remote (United States/Canada)

Commitment: Minimum 20 hrs/week

Anime Universe is an early stage startup in the building and fundraising phase.

Compensation:

• No upfront cash
• "Sweat Equity": Equity (shares) + future token-based rewards (pending legal clearance)
• Salary unlocked by revenue milestones
• Remote-first, async-native, autonomy-rich team

What You Put In Is What You Get Out

At Anime Universe, infrastructure is not a support function—it’s a core enabler of the product itself. As a Senior Software Engineer (GCP-focused), you will design and build the applications, systems, and services that power an intelligent, scalable creative platform.

Why This Role Matters

This is a software engineering role at its core.

You’ll architect and implement cloud-native services, data-driven features, and scalable backend systems that bring our creative universe to life.

You will:

• Build application logic, APIs, and services that run on GCP.
• Shape the foundational architecture that supports real-time creativity, analytics, and future AI systems.
• Partner closely with product, data, and AI teams to turn ideas into production-ready software.

Your work is the backbone of how we deliver magic to users.

What You’ll Do

Build Cloud-Native Applications

• Develop microservices, APIs, backend components, and data-intensive features using GCP-native compute options like Cloud Run, GKE, and Cloud Functions.
• Write clean, scalable software using Python (or another backend language), with strong emphasis on modularity, maintainability, and performance.

Design & Implement GCP-Based Architectures

• Architect services using Cloud Storage, BigQuery, Pub/Sub, Firestore, Cloud SQL, and VPC networking.
• Make key decisions around system design, data modeling, and service boundaries.

Develop Data-Driven Features

• Build application logic that consumes real-time and batch data pipelines.
• Integrate with BigQuery, Dataflow, and Pub/Sub to power analytics, personalization, and content systems.

Build for Scale, Reliability & Developer Velocity

• Use CI/CD and IaC (Cloud Build, Terraform) to support the software you write—without being a dedicated DevOps engineer.
• Prioritize automation that supports fast iteration and high service quality.

Collaborate Across the Product

• Work with architects, designers, and AI engineers to ship product features end-to-end.
• Help define best practices for cloud-native software development internally.

(Bonus) AI/ML Enablement

• Integrate applications with Vertex AI components or internal ML systems.
• Experience with LangChain or generative AI is helpful but not required.

What You Bring

Software Engineering First

• 4+ years of professional software development experience
• Strong expertise with Python (or equivalent backend languages), distributed systems, and API development
• Experience developing production services on Google Cloud Platform

Deep GCP Knowledge (but applied through software engineering)

• Proficiency with:
• Cloud Run / GKE
• BigQuery, Dataflow, Pub/Sub
• Cloud SQL / Firestore
• IAM, VPC networking
• Experience designing scalable cloud architectures
• Strong familiarity with containerization and CI/CD workflows (Docker, Cloud Build, GitHub Actions)

Other Strengths

• Solid understanding of cloud security, monitoring, and performance tuning
• Terraform experience (for managing the resources your services rely on)
• Cloud certifications (Professional Cloud Architect/Developer/Data Engineer) are a plus
• A builder’s mindset—practical, iterative, and product-focused

Success Metrics

• Production-ready services delivered quickly and reliably
• Well-architected systems that scale with usage
• Fast deployment cycles and high engineering throughput
• Efficient, cost-conscious use of GCP resources
• New features (data-driven or AI-driven) enabled through your architectures

Compensation & Culture

• Equity: Role-based equity package
• Token Rewards: Potential based on contribution and compliance clearance
• Salary: Equity-first; salary unlocks via company revenue milestones
• Culture: Remote-first, async-native, and high-trust engineering environment