We anticipate relocating our in-person operations to London, UK in2027 . Applicants applying for Manchester-based in-person roles should be open to the possibility of relocation.
Role overview
We are looking for a full-time, in-person Junior–Mid Level Software Engineer to join our team in Manchester and grow into a high-impact backend and infrastructure role. You will design, build, and scale the core infrastructure that powers high-performance proxy and networking systems used by web-scraping, automation, and agentic AI companies. We support thousands of customers across 200+ countries, processing more than 15 billion proxy requests per month and handling petabytes of data flowing through our network. We’ve grown the business bootstrapped to $2M ARR, with +318% YoY platform sign-up growth — and we’re continuing to scale fast. This is a fast-paced, bootstrapped startup environment. We move quickly, ship frequently, and prioritise engineers who take real ownership, learn fast, and are willing to work extremely hard to deliver production-ready systems without layers of bureaucracy. You will work on distributed systems, backend services, API development, payments infrastructure, and performance-critical networking components. If you enjoy building systems that operate under real-world load, shipping features quickly, and owning problems end-to-end, this role will suit you.About Ping Proxies
Ping Proxies builds critical infrastructure for companies operating in web-scraping, browser automation, and agentic AI. Our customers depend on us for stable residential and ISP proxy networks that operate at scale. Reliability, latency, and system design are not optional — they are core to our product. We are a profitable, bootstrapped startup growing quickly and investing heavily in engineering. We build real infrastructure, not surface-level SaaS features. This role sits at the centre of that effort.Key responsibilities
Backend engineering & API development (primary focus)
- Develop APIs using Flask and FastAPI.
- Design and build backend services using Go and/or Python, including high-performance Go systems that support proxying, request routing, and log ingestion at scale.
- Rapidly design, build, and ship new API features that directly support customer use cases (we move fast — this is a bootstrapped startup).
- Maintain clean, well-structured, well-documented services for internal and external consumers.
- Integrate and maintain Stripe Payments infrastructure and billing systems.
Distributed systems & infrastructure
- Design systems that handle high throughput and concurrency.
- Work with Postgres, Redis, and Kafka in production.
- Improve system reliability, performance, and observability.
- Contribute to architectural decisions around scaling, fault tolerance, and resilience.
- Debug production issues across networking and backend layers.
DevOps & platform engineering
- Work with Docker and Kubernetes in production environments.
- Deploy and manage services on Linux infrastructure.
- Manage and optimise infrastructure on DigitalOcean.
- Contribute to infrastructure-as-code practices (e.g., Ansible).
- Improve CI/CD pipelines and deployment processes.
Speed & ownership
- Ship production-ready features quickly without sacrificing reliability.
- Work in short feedback loops in a fast-moving environment.
- Take ownership from idea → architecture → implementation → deployment.
- Balance pragmatism and long-term system design.
What success looks like
- New API features shipped quickly and reliably.
- Stable backend Go & Python services that scale with customer demand.
- Clean, well-designed systems that are easy to extend.
- Reduced incidents and improved observability.
- Payments and billing systems that operate reliably and accurately.
- Meaningful contribution to a high-performance in-office engineering culture.
Requirements
Must have
- At least 1-5 years experience with Go and/or Python.
- Experience building APIs with Flask or FastAPI (or similar technologies).
- Understanding of backend architecture and interest in distributed systems.
- Experience working with Postgres.
- Experience with Git and Docker
- Linux basics.
- Comfortable working in-person in Manchester (Deansgate), 5 days per week.
- Strong ownership mindset and ability to move quickly.
Nice to have
- Experience integrating Stripe Payments or similar billing systems.
- Experience with Kafka and Redis in production.
- Familiarity with Kubernetes.
- Experience building infrastructure products, networking tools, or proxy systems.
- Experience with tools such as N8N, Attio, or similar internal tooling stacks.
- Experience managing infrastructure on DigitalOcean.
- Familiarity with Ansible or other configuration management tools.
- Experience with tracing and Prometheus.
- Willingness to relocate in the future is a plus. We plan to relocate our head office to London within the next few years, and we would reassess compensation as part of any relocation.
What we offer
- In-person collaboration in a central Manchester (Deansgate) office.
- High ownership and autonomy, with real responsibility from day one.
- Real infrastructure challenges in web-scraping, automation, and agentic AI industries.
- A fast-paced, bootstrapped startup environment where your work has direct impact.
- The chance to help shape the company as we scale, not just contribute code.
- A steep learning curve. You will be thrown in the deep end daily and expected to swim, with support from the team.
- A young, ambitious team in their mid-twenties building a fast-growing business.
- A path to senior or lead engineering roles as the company grows.
How to apply
Please include:- A short explanation of why this role interests you.
- Examples of systems or APIs you’ve built.
- Any GitHub or project links (if available).
- A brief description of a distributed system or architecture you’ve designed.