Senior Backend Engineer - .NET and AI/ML (Backend Systems • Distributed Architecture • gRPC Microservices • Cloud Services • AI/ML & LLM Engineering)
Full Time | Hybrid
Zonda is redefining the future of housing. We are perfectly placed in the heart of the fast-growing real estate industry. We are making big bets on the future of real-estate, trailblazing a 2030 vision for the industry. Here at Zonda, you’ll be able to use your passion and curiosity to drive the next generation of real estate analysts, advisors, and technologists.
We are hiring a Senior Backend Engineer with strong .NET and AI/ML expertise to design and build scalable, high-performance backend systems and AI-powered features for NewHomeSource.com and Livabl, two of North America's largest new-home and pre-construction marketplaces.
This is a dual-focus role: you will spend meaningful time on both core backend engineering (.NET, gRPC microservices, SQL Server, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, AWS, Azure) and AI/ML engineering (LLMs, RAG, vector search, MCP, ranking, personalization). You'll work across our API Gateway, gRPC microservices, Search Engine, MVC web applications, and MCP (Model Context Protocol) server to ship features that directly impact millions of homebuyers. Working hours align with the Eastern Time (EDT/EST) zone.
What You'll Do
Backend Engineering
- Design, develop, and maintain backend services, REST APIs, and gRPC microservices using .NET Framework and .NET Core / .NET 8+ in C#.
- Build and evolve gRPC service contracts using Protocol Buffers(.proto), including streaming, error handling, and versioning across services and API gateways.
- Build and optimize data layers across SQL Server, MongoDB, and Elasticsearch, including indexing, query tuning, sharding, and relevance tuning.
- Apply DDD, CQRS,MediatR, and Minimal API patterns; structure code into Aggregate Roots, Commands/Handlers, and endpoints consistent with our engineering conventions.
- Improve performanceviacaching, async patterns, distributed processing, and event-driven messaging.
- Build cloud integrations across AWS and Azure (compute, storage, queues, observability). Both clouds are equally important.
- Contribute to CI/CD pipelines, GitHub Actions workflows, automated testing, containerization (Docker), and deployment automation.
- Uphold code quality, observability, structured logging, and operational excellence.
AI/ML Engineering
- Design and ship AI/ML-powered backend features such as search ranking, recommendations, personalization, and intelligent listing experiences.
- Build and operate RAG pipelines, vector search, embeddings stores, and LLM-powered services, integrated cleanly into our .NET ecosystem.
- Build, extend, and maintain our MCP (Model Context Protocol) server, including designing MCP tools, managing context windows, and exposing backend capabilities to AI agents and assistants.
- Integrate ML models into production via inference APIs, ranking services, gRPC endpoints, and personalization endpoints.
- Use GA4 / Segment event data to power behavioral signals, personalization, and ranking features.
- Evaluate and apply emerging AI tooling (LLM providers, agent frameworks, vector DBs) to solve real product problems.
- Apply AI-assisted development tools (GitHub Copilot, Copilot Coding Agent, Copilot Spaces) in day-to-day engineering.
Who You Are
Backend Engineering
- 7+ years building production backend systems with .NET Framework and .NET Core / .NET 6+.
- Strong expertise in REST API design, distributed systems, and microservices architecture.
- Hands-on experience designing and operating gRPC services in production with Protocol Buffers(.proto), including service contracts, code generation, error handling, deadlines, and inter-service communication patterns.
- Deep SQL Server experience: complex queries, indexing, stored procedures, and performance tuning.
- Hands-on production experience with MongoDB and Elasticsearch.
- Production experience on both AWS and Azure (compute, queues, storage, observability).
- Solid grasp of Git/GitHub, CI/CD, Docker, automated testing, and DevOps fundamentals.
- Experience with high-traffic, performance-sensitive consumer web platforms.
AI/ML Engineering
- 2+ years of hands-on experience shipping AI/ML features into production, such as ranking, personalization, recommendations, or LLM-powered services.
- Strong working knowledge of LLMs, embeddings, vector databases, and RAG architectures.
- Hands-on experience with MCP (Model Context Protocol), including designing and configuring MCP tools, managing context windows, and integrating MCP servers into backend services.
- Experience integrating inference APIs and ML models into production backends.
- Familiarity with prompt engineering, evaluation, and guardrails for LLM-based systems.
- Experience with GA4 / Segment event data for personalization or ranking is a plus.
- Exposure to Python ML tooling (LangChain, Hugging Face, SageMaker, Vertex AI,MLflow) is a plus.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with search relevance, ranking, or recommendation systems at scale, especially on Elasticsearch.
- Experience modernizing legacy .NET (Framework to .NET Core / .NET 8+) or migrating monoliths to gRPC-based, cloud-native architectures.
- Familiarity with distributed caching (Redis), event-driven systems (Kafka / SNS / Azure Service Bus), API Gateways, and CQRS/MediatR.
- Experience building MCP servers, AI agents, or internal AI developer tools.
- Real estate, marketplace, or classifieds domain experience.
Tech Stack
- Backend: .NET Framework, .NET Core / .NET 8+, C#, ASP.NET Minimal APIs, gRPC, Protocol Buffers,MediatR
- Databases: SQL Server, MongoDB, Elasticsearch
- Cloud: AWS, Azure
- AI/ML: LLMs, RAG, Vector DBs, MCP (Model Context Protocol),LangChain,MLflow, Python (optional)
- DevOps: GitHub, GitHub Actions, Docker, CI/CD, observability tooling
- Analytics: GA4, Segment
- Frontend (adjacent awareness): Next.js, React, TypeScript
Why People Love Working Here
- We offer meaningful work and opportunities for career growth
- Competitive Salary
- 100% paid by Zonda health benefit package
- 100% Company paid Life Insurance coverage
- Paid vacation and general holidays
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
- Paid Volunteer Day
- Summer Fridays
- Live Meditation Sessions
- Employee Recognition Platform
- Virtual Wellness Program
- Visionary Leadership Team
Inclusion & Equal Opportunity Employment
Zonda is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to diversity, inclusion & belonging. Here at Zonda, we are interested in every qualified candidate who is eligible to work in Canada.
