Co-Founder & Backend Architect

Marcus Rodriguez

Designing cloud-native architectures that handle millions of requests per second.

Marcus Rodriguez - Co-Founder & Backend Architect

Education

M.S. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University B.S. in Computer Engineering from UT Austin

Date

6 years as Principal Engineer at AWS 4 years as Senior Backend Engineer at Netflix

I’m Marcus Rodriguez, Co-Founder and Backend Architect at Kurai. I specialize in building distributed systems that scale—from MVP to millions of users. My background at AWS and Netflix has given me deep expertise in cloud architecture, microservices, and high-performance API design.

Scaling at Internet Scale

At AWS, I worked on EC2 infrastructure, helping design systems that power millions of customers. At Netflix, I led the migration from monolithic to microservices architecture, reducing deployment time from hours to minutes while improving reliability.

These experiences taught me that great backend engineering isn’t about fancy technologies—it’s about simplicity, observability, and making the right trade-offs.

My Expertise

Cloud Architecture:

  • Multi-cloud strategies (AWS, GCP, Azure)
  • Serverless architectures (Lambda, API Gateway)
  • Kubernetes orchestration at scale

API Design:

  • REST/gRPC APIs that developers love
  • API versioning and deprecation strategies
  • Authentication (OAuth2, JWT) and rate limiting

Database Design:

  • PostgreSQL for transactional workloads
  • MongoDB for flexible schemas
  • Redis caching strategies
  • Database optimization and sharding

DevOps & Infrastructure:

  • Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation)
  • CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI)
  • Monitoring and observability (Prometheus, Grafana)

Building for Tomorrow

The best backend architecture is one you don’t have to rewrite in two years. I focus on building systems that are:

  • Scalable: Handle 10x growth without redesign
  • Maintainable: Clear code, good documentation
  • Observable: Debug production issues in minutes, not days
  • Cost-Effective: Right-sized infrastructure that scales efficiently

Let’s Architect

Whether you’re starting from scratch or scaling an existing system, I’d love to help. Reach out at marcus@kurai.dev to discuss your backend architecture needs.

Talks and podcasts:

  • “Microservices at Netflix: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” (QCon 2023)
  • “Building APIs That Scale” (Software Engineering Daily podcast)

Build the Future of AI

Join a team of innovators shaping the intelligent systems landscape. Work on cutting-edge AI infrastructure, LLM applications, and scalable backends that power the next generation of software.

Apply today