Backend Product Engineer

Location: Turin / Hybrid

Employment: Full-time

Experience: 5+ years

Stack: Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, AWS, Docker, Terraform

About GrantSpider

GrantSpider is building the AI Grant Office: a platform that helps universities, research centres and innovative companies manage the full grant lifecycle: from opportunity discovery and partner identification to proposal development, submission and post-award management.

We are evolving from an advanced AI copilot into a grant office autopilot capable of coordinating complex, multi-user workflows across our platform and enterprise systems.

We are an early-stage, fast-growing startup looking for an experienced backend engineer who wants substantial ownership and the opportunity to shape both the product and the technical architecture.

The role

We are looking for a committed Backend Product Engineer who can take ownership of complex product areas from initial requirements to production.

You will not simply receive detailed tickets. You will be expected to understand the user problem, challenge unclear requirements, design a pragmatic solution, implement it, test it and monitor it after release.

You will work closely with the founders, contributing to the core systems that power GrantSpider’s workflows, agents and enterprise features.

What you will work on

• Designing and developing scalable backend services with Python and FastAPI
• Building the infrastructure behind multi-step AI and agent workflows
• Developing APIs, data models and asynchronous processing systems
• Improving workflow state management, error recovery and observability
• Building enterprise features such as permissions, audit logs and secure data access
• Integrating GrantSpider with external platforms and customer systems
• Improving automated testing, code quality and deployment reliability
• Contributing to architectural and product decisions
• Reviewing code and helping strengthen engineering standards across the team

Our platform currently uses FastAPI, React, PostgreSQL, pgvector, Neo4j, AWS, Docker, Terraform and GitHub Actions, with LangGraph powering multi-agent orchestration.

What we are looking for

• At least 5 years of professional software-development experience
• Strong Python and backend-development skills
• Experience designing APIs and relational data models
• Experience with PostgreSQL and production cloud environments
• Ability to independently own a feature from an ambiguous problem to production
• Strong attention to maintainability, testing and failure handling
• Product mindset: you care whether users can successfully complete their work, not only whether the code runs
• Ability to communicate trade-offs clearly and challenge decisions constructively
• Comfort working in a startup environment with changing priorities and limited process
• Responsible use of AI coding tools: you must accelerate development with them while retaining full understanding and ownership of the code
• Italian and English, at least B2

You may be a strong fit if

• You prefer owning outcomes rather than completing isolated tickets
• You naturally simplify overcomplicated systems
• You investigate production issues without waiting for instructions
• You ask questions about the user and business context before coding
• You can move quickly without creating unnecessary technical debt

Team

You will join a small, hands-on technical team composed of:

• a founder-led product and technology function;
• an AI orchestration engineer coordinating engineering delivery;
• a senior developer focused on integrations, authentication and infrastructure;
• a backend engineer focused on data pipelines and internal services.

You will be given ownership of major backend product areas and will have a direct influence on how GrantSpider’s platform evolves.

Compensation

• €50,000–€65,000 gross annual salary, depending on experience, technical capabilities and level of independence
• Possibility of a higher offer for an exceptional candidate with strong early-stage startup experience
• Equity