Backend & APIs
Backend and APIs that hold up in production
Reliable Node.js and Python services, clean REST and GraphQL APIs, and the unglamorous reliability work that keeps them running once real traffic shows up.
I build the server-side systems your product runs on: Node.js and Python services with well-designed REST and GraphQL APIs, sane data models, and auth that actually holds. Most of what I do here is the part that doesn't demo well but decides whether your app survives a busy week — idempotent endpoints, retry-safe background jobs, sensible pagination, and observability you can debug with at 2am.
The problems I get called in for are usually familiar: an API that grew organically and now contradicts itself, double charges because a webhook fired twice, auth bolted on as an afterthought, or a service that falls over the moment a third party gets slow. I fix the data model first, draw clear contracts around the API, and put queues and timeouts where they belong so one slow dependency doesn't take the whole thing down. The goal is a backend that behaves predictably under load and under failure — not just on the happy path.
Seventeen years and 15,000+ hours of shipping production backends is mostly worth it for the mistakes I no longer make. I know which decisions are cheap to change later and which ones will haunt you, so I don't over-engineer a v1 or paint you into a corner for v3. You get an engineer who has run these systems in production, not just stood them up — someone who can design the API, build it, and own the boring reliability that keeps it quietly working.
What you get
Deliverables
Production API
A documented REST or GraphQL API with consistent contracts, validation, and error handling your frontend and integrators can rely on.
Solid auth layer
Authentication, sessions or tokens, and role-based authorization built to current security practice, not copy-pasted from a tutorial.
Clean data model
A schema with the right constraints, indexes, and migrations so your data stays correct as the product grows.
Background jobs
Queues and workers for the slow and async work, with retries, idempotency, and dead-letter handling so nothing silently disappears.
Observability setup
Structured logging, metrics, and tracing wired in so you can actually see what the service is doing in production.
API documentation
OpenAPI or GraphQL schema docs plus a short runbook covering deploys, env config, and the failure modes that matter.
Stack
Technologies I use for this
How it goes
The engagement
Map the domain
We pin down the data model, the API contracts, and the failure cases before I write endpoint code, so the design fits the actual problem.
Build the core
I implement the services and APIs in vertical slices — auth, then the key resources — keeping each one shippable and testable rather than half-built everywhere.
Harden it
Then come the parts production needs: idempotency, queues, rate limits, timeouts, and observability, plus tests around the paths that would actually hurt if they broke.
Ship and hand off
We deploy with monitoring in place, I document the API and runbook, and I stay available to support it after launch.
FAQ
Questions about Backend & APIs
- Do you build REST or GraphQL APIs?
- Both, and I'll tell you honestly which fits your case. REST is the right default for most products; GraphQL earns its keep when you have many clients with very different data needs. I've shipped both in production and won't push one because it's trendy.
- Can you work with my existing backend instead of rebuilding it?
- Yes — most of my backend work is improving and extending systems that already exist. I'll audit the current code and data model, fix the reliability and security gaps, and add features without a risky rewrite unless one is genuinely justified.
- How do you handle authentication and security?
- I build auth to current practice: proper password hashing or delegated identity, sensible session or token handling, role-based authorization, and input validation at every boundary. Security is designed in from the start, not patched on after a scare.
- What about reliability — queues, retries, that kind of thing?
- That's the core of what I deliver here. Idempotent endpoints, background queues with retries and dead-letter handling, timeouts around external calls, and observability so failures are visible. It's the boring work that keeps your API up when traffic and dependencies misbehave.
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Need help with Backend & APIs?
Tell me about your project and I'll tell you honestly whether I'm the right fit.
Get in touch