Focal is a venture-backed seed stage startup that designs targeted heating systems that heat people, not spaces. Our autonomous system delivers targeted heat exactly where it’s needed — keeping people optimally comfortable while cutting energy waste. We're launching our first product with the hospitality industry in Fall of 2025. You can learn more about the company's mission, founding team, and what they've been up to the last couple years here.

We’re seeking a highly capable Full Stack Software Engineer with strong backend experience to support our small, fast-moving team. This is a hands-on role building modern systems with asynchronous APIs, diverse databases, and cloud deployment pipelines. You’ll work closely with 2–3 engineers and be responsible for writing clean, reliable, and maintainable code that supports our core platform.

We are open to remote or offshore candidates who are self-directed, communicate clearly, and take pride in building high-quality systems with long-term maintainability in mind.

What You’ll Work On

• Build and maintain FastAPI-based backend services with Pydantic and SQLAlchemy

• Integrate with MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and TimescaleDB

• Implement API authentication and security layers using OAuth2, JWT, and API keys

• Support background processes and messaging via MQTT

• Develop and support data visualizations via Grafana and modern frontend frameworks (React, Next.js)

• Maintain CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions, Docker, Ansible

• Deploy and monitor services on AWS EC2

• Ensure system reliability through testing with pytest and structured QA

Tech Stack

Backend & Database:

• FastAPI, Pydantic, SQLAlchemy

• Async/sync DB operations (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, TimescaleDB)

• Pytest for QA

• Google OAuth2, JWT, API keys

• MQTT for messaging

• Background task management

Frontend:

• Grafana

• React, Next.js

DevOps & Tools:

• Docker, Docker Compose, GitHub Package Repo

• Ansible, GitHub Actions

• AWS EC2

• Git, VSCode Remote SSH, Linux basics

You Should Have

• Proven experience writing stable, production-ready code that can be maintained by small teams

• Familiarity working with asynchronous Python frameworks and multiple types of databases

• Good communication skills, especially in remote and distributed settings

• A bias toward action, documentation, and code clarity

• 5+ years of experience working on multiple teams and showing clear growth trajectory

• Early stage start-up experience

Nice to Have

• Experience working in energy, hardware, or IoT-adjacent environments

• Knowledge of TimescaleDB for time-series data

• Comfort with real-time systems and distributed architecture

Compensation Range: $90K - $180K