We’re a small team running a Python-based backend on AWS. The system is live and serving users, but we’ve accumulated some technical debt and unfinished work that we need help cleaning up.
This is not a greenfield build. You’ll be stepping into an existing codebase.
What’s Going On
The backend is written in Python (FastAPI)
Deployed using Docker on AWS (ECS + DynamoDB)
Most things work, but:
Deployments are brittle
One background job occasionally fails silently
A couple of features were started by a previous contractor and left half-done
We’re not looking to rewrite everything — we want to stabilize what exists.
Review the current deployment setup and suggest concrete improvements
Fix the failing background job and add basic monitoring/logging
Finish 1–2 incomplete backend features (we’ll define these together)
Minor refactoring where it clearly improves reliability or readability
We expect this to take ~1–2 weeks, depending on findings.
What We Care About
You can read unfamiliar code and figure out what’s going on
You’re comfortable debugging production issues
You can explain trade-offs and suggest pragmatic fixes
You’re okay saying “this isn’t worth changing right now”
What We Don’t Need
Big architectural rewrites
Over-engineering
Long reports or slide decks
Working Style
Async communication
A few check-ins to align on findings
Clear handoff at the end so we can maintain things ourselves
Apply Now
Apply Now