Senior Backend Software Engineer (Seed / Founding Engineer)
ExternalPrepare for this interview
EliteAI-generated questions, company research, and talking points tailored to this role
About the role
Based in Hyderabad, join a global healthcare biopharma company and be part of a 130-year legacy of success backed by ethical integrity, forward momentum, and an inspiring mission to achieve new milestones in global healthcare. Be part of an organisation driven by digital technology and data-backed approaches that support a diversified portfolio of prescription medicines, vaccines, and animal health products. Drive innovation and execution excellence. Join a team that is passionate about using data, analytics, and insights to drive decision-making and create custom software, allowing us to tackle some of the world's greatest health threats. Our Technology Centres focus on creating a space where teams can come together to deliver business solutions that save and improve lives. An integral part of our company's IT operating model, Tech Centres are globally distributed locations where each IT division has employees to enable our digital transformation journey and drive business outcomes. These locations, in addition to the other sites, are essential to supporting our business and strategy. A focused group of leaders in each Tech Center helps ensure we can manage and improve each location, from investing in the growth, success, and well-being of our people to making sure colleagues from each IT division feel a sense of belonging, to managing critical emergencies. Together, we must leverage the strength of our team to collaborate globally to optimize connections and share best practices across the Tech Centres. Role Overview As a Backend, you will design, build, and operate the server-side systems that power our products-APIs, services, data layers, integrations, and operational tooling. You will work in a matrix organizational structure, partnering closely with Product and cross-functional peers to deliver outcomes end-to-end. What will you do Build & Run Production Backend Systems Design, implement, and maintain scalable backend services and APIs (REST and service-to-service integration). Own data modeling and persistence layers (relational and/or NoSQL), including performance optimization, indexing, and query tuning. Implement security and data protection patterns (authentication/authorization, validation, secure endpoint design). Drive operational excellence: observability, reliability improvements, incident response and pragmatic hardening of services over time. Engineer for Quality (Not Just Delivery) Write clean, maintainable code with strong automated tests (unit + integration) and enforce review discipline. Follow "shift-left" engineering guardrails, including local validation expectations, a secure development posture, and secret protection. GenAI / AI-Assisted Development (Expected, Governed, and Safe) We expect you to use AI-assisted development as part of day-to-day engineering-with strong human ownership and governance: Use the enterprise-standard coding assistant GitHub Copilot for development tasks (coding, refactoring, test generation, PR support), with mandatory human review of AI-generated code before production deployment. Use only permitted AI-assisted tools and follow internal boundaries (enterprise standard vs. exception tools). Apply "human-in-the-loop" practice: responsibility for code integrity remains with the engineer, and AI output must be reviewed/validated. Use GenAI to accelerate productivity across the lifecycle (development, PR reviews, test generation, system understanding), consistent with observed adoption patterns in Software engineering. Follow Responsible AI principles-avoid feeding unsafe data into AI and use appropriate oversight when outputs inform decisions or external-facing artifacts What should you have Core Experience Major hands-on backend engineering experience delivering production systems: 3+ years Proven track record owning services end-to-end: design → build → deploy → operate. Technical Skills (Must-Have) Strong proficiency in at least one backend stack (e.g., Java / Python / Node.js) and modern API/service design. Strong database fundamentals (schema design, SQL, performance optimization; NoSQL is a plus). Experience with CI/CD and modern engineering workflows (version control, automated testing, deployments). Secure development mindset: input validation, secrets hygiene, dependency/security awareness. GenAI / AI-Assisted Development: Practical experience using AI-assisted coding tools (especially GitHub Copilot) to accelerate delivery while maintaining code quality. Discipline to apply guardrails: human review, local validation, and responsible AI use.
Requirements
- Cloud-native experience (AWS/Azure/GCP), containers, observability tooling.
- Prior experience as an early hire/founding engineer in a new site or team.
- Ways of Working:
- Operate within a product environment and collaborate cross-functionally in a matrix structure (functional + product alignment).
- Hyd
Benefits
Additional Information
Job Description Senior Backend Software Engineer (Seed / Founding Engineer)
Your Match
How well this role fits your profile.
Company Intel
What employees say
Worked at Merck? Share your experience