Backend Developer (Rust)

Job description

<h1>Rust Engineer — Distributed Execution Engine</h1><p style="min-height:1.5em">Berlin (hybrid) or Remote (countries within ~4–5 hours travel of Berlin)<br /></p><h2>About our client</h2><p style="min-height:1.5em">Our client is a B2B sourcing platform serving the automotive dealership industry. They're a small, fast-moving engineering team building core infrastructure from the ground up rather than assembling off-the-shelf tools — the kind of environment where a single engineer's technical decisions shape the product for years.<br /></p><h2>About the role</h2><p style="min-height:1.5em">You'll join a small engineering team building the client's sourcing platform. Your focus will be their <strong>flowgraph</strong> — a <strong>horizontally scalable, step-based execution engine</strong>, similar in spirit to n8n or Unreal Engine's Blueprints, but <strong>built from the ground up in Rust</strong> with <strong>strong typing</strong> and <strong>production workloads</strong> in mind. It drives their order processing and ETL pipelines.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em">This isn't a typical backend role. Rather than wiring together managed queues and off-the-shelf orchestration tools, the team <strong>builds its own coordination and fault-tolerance mechanisms from scratch</strong> — because the workloads don't fit neatly into existing solutions. If you enjoy thinking about <strong>graph theory, type systems, parsers and compilers, WASM runtimes, or distributed systems architecture</strong> as part of your everyday work — not just as a personal interest — you'll feel at home here.</p><h2>What you'll do</h2><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Research, design, and build on the client's <strong>bespoke distributed graph execution engine</strong>, written in Rust.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Design and implement <strong>graph executor node implementations</strong> to power third-party integrations with partner and supplier systems.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Build and maintain infrastructure for the distributed execution engine — <strong>deployment pipelines, observability, and site reliability</strong>.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Design and implement <strong>coordination and fault-tolerance mechanisms from scratch</strong> (not by wrapping existing message queues) — handling partial failures, node coordination, and recovery within the engine itself.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Develop and maintain <strong>logistics and ETL workflows</strong> within this ecosystem, tied directly to the core business.</p></li></ul><h2>What we're looking for</h2><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Must-have:</strong></p><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>7+ years</strong> of backend development experience.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>3+ years</strong> of professional Rust experience.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Strong, practical grasp of <strong>distributed systems and fault-tolerant software architecture</strong>.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Familiarity with at least some of: <strong>graph theory, type theory, parsers and compilers</strong>, and related CS fundamentals. We don't expect mastery of all of these — most strong candidates bring deep expertise in <strong>3–4 out of 5</strong> core areas, with <strong>distributed systems being the one we weight most heavily</strong>.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Real-world <strong>DevOps</strong> experience.</p></li></ul><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Nice to have:</strong></p><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">A background in <strong>C/C++</strong> before moving to Rust.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Experience with key-value stores or distributed databases — <strong>FoundationDB or TiKV</strong> are a big plus.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Experience with frontend web development.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Experience with existing low-/no-code workflow tools (<strong>n8n, Prefect, AWS Step Functions</strong>).</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Understanding of <strong>WASM runtimes</strong>.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Previous experience with <strong>logistics or process management</strong> systems.</p></li></ul><h2>Location &amp; setup</h2><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Berlin / Wildau area:</strong> hybrid, with <strong>1 day per week</strong> in the office.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Elsewhere within ~4–5 hours' travel of Berlin:</strong> <strong>fully remote</strong>, no office requirement.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Employment: official employment in Germany, or <strong>B2B contract</strong> elsewhere in Europe.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Full-time</strong>, ~40 hours/week, with meaningful overlap with CEST hours.</p></li></ul><p>Find more <a href="https://www.arbeitnow.com/english-speaking-jobs">English Speaking Jobs in Germany</a> on Arbeitnow</a>

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Estimated range — based on Software Engineer with 0-1 years experience (4 similar listings). Actual compensation may vary based on your specific experience, interview performance, and the company’s internal bands.