Mid Backend Developer Jobs in Phoenix, AZ (NOW HIRING)

At Entertainment Partners and Central Casting, we are committed to creating an environment where every employee is seen, where ideas, thoughts and perspectives are shared openly, and where fearless innovation is encouraged. Weaving diversity, equity, and inclusion into who we are will drive our competitiveness by encouraging creativity and enhanced decision making.
We help to power Oscar-winning films, Emmy-winning shows, and Clio-winning commercials. Feel the satisfaction of doing work that directly impacts the most exciting industry in the world. EP is poised to redefine and evolve the back-office processes of the entertainment community with security at the core of what we do.
Are you looking for the next opportunity to revolutionize an industry? If so....
Entertainment Partners (EP) is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to join our AI-first engineering organization. This role is central to EP's mission of building the next generation of intelligent payroll, production management, and financial systems for the global entertainment industry. The Senior Software Engineer takes end-to-end ownership of complex features and technical domains, drives architecture decisions within their team, and serves as a force multiplier through mentorship, code quality leadership, and cross-functional collaboration. This engineer is expected to operate with high autonomy and deliver measurable impact on products used by the world's leading studios, streamers, and production companies.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
In addition to the following, other duties may be assigned to meet business needs.
Full Stack Engineering

• Design, build, and maintain scalable full stack applications using Python (FastAPI) and React.js/TypeScript.
• Own the architecture of one or more product domains, including API design, data modeling, and frontend component strategy.
• Build RESTful and event-driven microservices with a focus on reliability, observability, and security.
• Implement and maintain CI/CD pipelines; enforce deployment standards and release quality gates.
• Optimize application performance across the stack - backend throughput, frontend rendering, and database query efficiency.

AI & Agentic Application Development

• Integrate LLM services (OpenAI, Anthropic/Claude) and orchestration frameworks (LangChain, LangGraph) into production systems.
• Contribute to the design and development of agentic user interfaces - conversational, workflow-driven, and context-aware UX patterns.
• Implement and extend MCP (Model Context Protocol) server tooling to expose EP product domains to AI agents.
• Apply prompt engineering techniques and participate in AI evaluation frameworks to ensure reliable, production-grade AI behavior.
• Technical Leadership & Collaboration
• Lead architecture discussions, produce ADRs (Architecture Decision Records), and participate in EP's Architecture Review Board as appropriate.
• Conduct meaningful code reviews that elevate team quality standards and share actionable, respectful feedback.
• Mentor mid-level and junior engineers through pair programming, design sessions, and career guidance.
• Collaborate with Product Management, UX, DevOps/SRE, and QE teams to deliver well-rounded, production-ready features.
• Participate actively in Agile/SAFe ceremonies; contribute to sprint planning, backlog grooming, and PI planning.
• Write clear technical documentation, runbooks, and onboarding guides.

Engineering Quality

• Write comprehensive unit, integration, and end-to-end tests; maintain high coverage standards.
• Identify and address technical debt proactively; champion refactoring initiatives with business justification.
• Uphold and improve EP's engineering quality gates across linting, static analysis, security scanning, and performance benchmarks.

JOB REQUIREMENTS / QUALIFICATIONS NEEDED
Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent professional experience.
• 6-10+ years of professional software engineering experience with demonstrated growth in scope and impact.
• Strong proficiency in Python; hands-on production experience with FastAPI or a comparable async web framework.
• Strong expertise in React.js and TypeScript; experience with modern state management (Redux, Zustand, Context API).
• Experience designing and consuming RESTful APIs and microservices architectures.
• Solid understanding of relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL datastores (MongoDB); proficiency with ORMs.
• Experience with CI/CD tooling (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, Azure DevOps) and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes basics).
• Exposure to AWS or Azure cloud-native deployment patterns; OCI experience a plus.
• Demonstrated experience integrating LLM APIs or building AI-powered product features.
• Experience with JWT/OAuth2 authentication patterns and API security best practices.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience with LangChain, LangGraph, or comparable AI orchestration frameworks.
• Familiarity with vector databases and semantic search (pgvector, Pinecone, Weaviate, etc.).
• Experience with real-time communication patterns (WebSockets, SSE, streaming APIs).
• Prior work in entertainment, media, payroll, or fintech domains.
• Familiarity with SAFe / Agile Release Train (ART) planning and governance.
• Hybrid work environment - Burbank, CA headquarters with flexible remote schedule.
• On-call availability as needed for production incidents and scheduled releases.
• Sitting for extended periods of time at a computer workstation.
• Dexterity of hands and fingers to operate a computer keyboard and mouse.
• Occasional participation in early-morning or evening meetings to coordinate with distributed team members.

Other benefits and perks included are:

• Health, Dental, and Vision options
• 401(k) retirement savings plan and company match
• Paid holidays, vacation time, and sick time
• Participation in company equity plans
• Employee Assistance Program, mental health and wellness programs
• Training and development
• Annual bonus and merit reviews

The salary range for this position in $135,000 to $163,000 and will be commensurate with experience related to the position.
Entertainment Partners seeks to employ the most qualified individuals from the available workforce and to provide equal employment opportunity for all persons. Our policy prohibits unlawful discrimination based on race, color, religion, religious creed, sex, gender identity/expression, age, pregnancy, citizenship status, marital status, national origin or ancestry, physical or mental disability (whether perceived or actual), medical condition (cancer-related or genetic characteristics-related), sexual orientation, veteran status, medical/family care leave status or any other consideration made unlawful by applicable federal, state, or local laws. Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.
Equal opportunity extends to all aspects of the employment relationship, including recruiting, hiring, transfers, promotions, training, terminations, working conditions, compensation, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment.