Backend Engineer

The Role

Real-time campaign sync. Persistent galaxy state across sessions. A deterministic faction engine that advances an entire galaxy based on current conditions. An economy with wallets, dynamic pricing, transaction ledgers, and capacity checks. Starship refits with in-game time costs. Snapshot and branch systems for campaign forking. All of it backed by Supabase with Clerk auth and Stripe entitlements. You build the systems that make a living galaxy actually live.

What You'll Do

• Design and build the backend architecture for campaign state, real-time sync, and persistent galaxy simulation
• Implement the deterministic faction turn engine — state in, outcomes out, no randomness
• Build the economy layer — wallets, markets, dynamic pricing modifiers, transaction ledgers, capacity enforcement
• Architect the campaign copy system — master characters and starships spawn campaign-scoped copies on GM approval, with full continuity guarantees
• Implement snapshot, branch, and fork systems for campaign timeline management
• Build real-time sync for roster, notes, timeline, chat, rolls, reveals, and overlays
• Integrate Supabase, Clerk, and Stripe into a coherent entitlement and session pipeline

Requirements

• 5+ years backend engineering with real-time and stateful application experience
• Deep expertise in PostgreSQL, real-time subscriptions, and state management for persistent worlds
• Game backend experience. Campaign state, inventory, economy, or simulation
• Supabase familiarity, or equivalent experience with PostgreSQL + real-time + auth + storage stacks
• You've built a system where multiple users modify shared state simultaneously and nobody loses data

Compensation

All positions include equity in Kuykendall Industries. Salaries are TBD and will be determined based on role scope, experience, and what you bring to the table — literally and figuratively.

The Builder Clause

We don't care where you went to school. We don't care if you went to school. Our founder is self-taught, started coding at 13, and built a 602,000-line cognitive architecture and a 420,000-word universe without a CS degree or a creative writing MFA.

Meet the qualifications, or show us what you've built. Either path works. Both paths demand excellence.

Apply

Ready to move? Send a short note of relevant proof-of-work — past shipped projects, metrics you moved, or a draft of your first 30 days.