Intermediate Full-Stack Engineer (Vue.js/n8n/Supabase/Botpress/LLM)

Position Overview

Job Title: Intermediate Full-Stack Engineer (Vue.js/n8n/Supabase/Botpress/LLM)
Level: Intermediate
Employment Type: Full-time
Location: Primarily Remote (with occasional on-site meetings for planning and stakeholder collaboration)

Role Summary

Full-stack engineer to maintain, extend, and support a conversational bot application, administration dashboard and associated infrastructure. This role combines frontend development, backend integration, workflow automation, conversational AI development with LLM integration, DevOps responsibilities, and technical collaboration with business stakeholders. 

The successful candidate will be responsible for developing and maintaining n8n workflows, implementing LLM-powered enhancements to Botpress chatbots, maintaining the Vue.js dashboard application, managing Digital Ocean infrastructure, providing technical guidance on new features, and serving as Level 3 support for production incidents. A key focus area is implementing Large Language Model technology to make conversational bots more intelligent and capable.

Key Responsibilities

Application Development & Maintenance (30%)

• Frontend Development
  • Maintain and extend Vue.js 3 application using TypeScript
  • Develop responsive UI components
  • Write and maintain comprehensive E2E and component tests
  • Ensure adherence to established coding standards and architectural patterns
• Backend Integration
  • Develop and maintain Supabase database functions and RLS policies
  • Create and manage database migrations
  • Build and optimize queries and stored procedures
  • Maintain RESTful API integrations

n8n Workflow Development & Automation (25%)

• Design, develop, and maintain n8n workflows for business process automation
• Build complex workflow integrations connecting multiple services and APIs
• Implement error handling, retry logic, and workflow monitoring
• Create and maintain workflow documentation and architectural diagrams
• Optimize workflow performance and resource consumption
• Manage n8n environments (Development, QA, Production)
• Develop custom functions and expressions within n8n
• Integrate workflows with Supabase, external APIs, and messaging platforms
• Debug and troubleshoot workflow execution issues
• Implement workflow versioning and backup strategies
• Monitor workflow execution metrics and success rates

Botpress Chatbot Development & AI Enhancement (20%)

• Design, develop, and maintain WhatsApp chatbot conversation flows in Botpress
• Integrate and implement Large Language Model (LLM) technology to enhance bot intelligence and capabilities
• Design and develop LLM-powered conversational experiences
• Build RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) systems for context-aware responses
• Manage LLM API integrations and optimize token usage and costs
• Manage Botpress environments (Development, UAT, Production)
• Implement and optimize natural language understanding (NLU) intents and entities
• Integrate chatbot with backend services and APIs
• Monitor chatbot performance metrics, user interactions, and LLM response quality
• Troubleshoot conversation flow issues and improve user experience
• Document conversation flows, bot capabilities, and LLM integration patterns

DevOps & Infrastructure (15%)

• Digital Ocean Infrastructure Management
  • Manage and maintain Digital Ocean droplets hosting n8n instances
  • Configure droplet resources (CPU, memory, storage) and scaling
  • Implement security hardening and firewall rules
  • Manage SSH access and key management
  • Monitor droplet performance and resource utilization
  • Perform droplet backups, snapshots, and disaster recovery
  • Handle droplet upgrades, patches, and maintenance windows
• Application Infrastructure
  • Monitor application health and performance across all environments
  • Manage Docker containerized deployments
  • Maintain GitLab CI/CD pipelines
  • Configure and maintain Supabase instances (local, staging, production)
  • Implement and maintain logging, monitoring, and alerting systems
  • Perform database backups, migrations, and recovery procedures
  • Optimize application performance and resource utilization

Production Support & Incident Management (15%)

• Serve as Level 3 support for production incidents and escalations
• Diagnose and resolve complex technical issues across the full stack (application, workflows, infrastructure)
• Respond to infrastructure alerts and server-related incidents
• Troubleshoot Digital Ocean droplet performance and connectivity issues
• Perform emergency server maintenance and recovery procedures
• Perform root cause analysis and implement preventive measures
• Coordinate with stakeholders during critical incidents
• Maintain incident documentation and post-mortem reports
• Participate in on-call rotation for production support (application and infrastructure)

Technical Leadership & Collaboration (10%)

• Business & Product Collaboration
  • Collaborate with business stakeholders and product owner on new feature proposals
  • Provide technical feasibility assessments for proposed features, especially LLM-powered enhancements
  • Estimate effort, complexity, and timeline for development work
  • Identify and communicate technical risks and dependencies
  • Propose architectural solutions and design approaches
  • Recommend LLM providers, models, and integration strategies for AI enhancements
  • Recommend technology choices and implementation strategies
  • Present technical options with pros/cons to non-technical stakeholders
  • Participate in requirements gathering and refinement sessions
  • Educate stakeholders on LLM capabilities, limitations, and costs
• Documentation & Knowledge Sharing
  • Create and maintain technical documentation
  • Document architectural decisions and implementation patterns
  • Collaborate with team members through code reviews
  • Contribute to knowledge base and troubleshooting guides
  • Participate in sprint planning and retrospectives
  • Share knowledge through tech talks or documentation

Required Technical Skills

Frontend Technologies

• Vue.js 3 (Composition API, <script setup>, reactivity system)
• TypeScript (intermediate to advanced proficiency)
• Vuetify 3 (Material Design components, theming, responsive layouts)
• Pinia (state management patterns)

Backend & Database

• Supabase (authentication, database functions, RLS policies, real-time subscriptions)
• PostgreSQL (SQL queries, migrations, indexes, performance tuning)
• Database Design (normalization, relationships, constraints)
• RESTful APIs (design, consumption, error handling)

Workflow Automation

• n8n (workflow design, node configuration, custom expressions)
• API integration patterns and best practices
• Webhook design and implementation
• Error handling and retry strategies
• Workflow debugging and optimization
• JSON/JavaScript manipulation in automation contexts
• OAuth and authentication flows
• Async processing and queue management

Conversational AI & LLM Integration

• Botpress (flow creation, NLU configuration, channel integrations, LLM node configuration)
• Large Language Models (LLMs) (GPT-4, Claude, Gemini, or similar)
• LLM API integration (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google AI, Azure OpenAI)
• Prompt engineering and optimization techniques
• RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) architecture and implementation
• Vector databases and semantic search (Pinecone, Weaviate, or similar)
• Token optimization and cost management strategies
• LLM safety and guardrails (content filtering, response validation)
• Embeddings and similarity search
• WhatsApp Business API integration
• Conversation design principles for both rule-based and LLM-powered bots
• Intent modeling and entity extraction

DevOps & Infrastructure

• Digital Ocean (droplet management, networking, volumes, snapshots)
• Linux Server Administration (Ubuntu/Debian, system configuration, security hardening)
• Docker (containerization, docker-compose, volume management)
• Nginx/Apache (reverse proxy configuration, SSL/TLS setup)
• SSH (key management, secure access configuration)
• Firewall Management (iptables, UFW, security groups)
• Server Monitoring (resource monitoring, log management)
• Git (branching strategies, merge conflict resolution)
• GitLab CI/CD (pipeline configuration, deployment automation)
• npm (package management, dependency resolution)
• SSL/TLS Certificates (Let’s Encrypt, certificate management)

Integration & Automation

• RESTful API design and consumption
• GraphQL queries and mutations
• Third-party API integration (Afrihost, Vuma, NetCash, etc.)
• Data transformation and mapping
• Event-driven architecture patterns

Testing

• Cypress (E2E testing, component testing)
• Unit testing frameworks (Vitest/Jest)
• Test-driven development practices

Required Experience & Proficiency

Core Development Skills

• Intermediate to advanced proficiency in professional software development
• Strong proficiency with Vue.js or similar modern frontend frameworks (React, Angular)
• Strong proficiency with TypeScript for production applications
• Intermediate proficiency with PostgreSQL or similar relational databases (MySQL, SQL Server)
• Intermediate proficiency with workflow automation platforms such as n8n, Zapier, Make, or Temporal
• Intermediate proficiency with chatbot platforms (Botpress, Dialogflow, or similar)
• Working knowledge of LLM APIs and integration (OpenAI, Anthropic, or similar)
• Familiarity with prompt engineering and LLM application development

Infrastructure & DevOps

• Intermediate proficiency with Linux server administration and cloud infrastructure management
• Demonstrated experience managing production cloud infrastructure (Digital Ocean, AWS, Azure, or similar)
• Proficiency with Docker containerization and orchestration
• Working experience with CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation

Production Support & Collaboration

• Proven experience with production support and incident management
• Demonstrated ability to work across the full application stack
• Proven track record of successful API integration projects
• Strong experience collaborating with non-technical stakeholders on feature requirements
• Demonstrated ability to estimate effort and assess technical risk

Additional Desirable Qualifications

• Previous remote work experience in a software engineering role
• Experience in technical leadership or lead developer roles
• Track record of successful stakeholder collaboration and requirements gathering
• Experience with architectural design and system design documentation
• Background in Agile estimation techniques (story points, planning poker)
• Experience presenting technical concepts to C-level executives or business leaders
• Experience working across multiple time zones or distributed teams
• Hands-on experience with RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) systems
• Experience with vector databases (Pinecone, Weaviate, Chroma, or similar)
• Knowledge of embedding models and semantic search techniques
• Experience with LangChain, LlamaIndex, or similar LLM orchestration frameworks
• Understanding of fine-tuning and model optimization techniques
• Experience with LLM evaluation metrics and quality assurance
• Experience comparing and selecting between different LLM providers and models
• Knowledge of streaming responses and real-time LLM integration
• Experience with Digital Ocean platform specifically
• Experience with Supabase platform specifically
• Previous experience with n8n specifically (vs. other automation platforms)
• Linux server hardening and security best practices
• Experience with Nginx configuration and optimization
• Knowledge of server monitoring tools (Datadog, New Relic, Prometheus, Grafana)
• Experience with infrastructure as code (Terraform, Ansible)
• Familiarity with backup and disaster recovery strategies
• Understanding of network security and VPN configuration
• Familiarity with Material Design principles
• Experience with WhatsApp Business API or messaging platforms
• Background in telecommunications or ISP industry
• Experience with Sentry or similar error tracking tools
• Knowledge of Firebase services
• Understanding of responsive web design and mobile-first approaches
• Experience with performance optimization and monitoring tools
• Familiarity with Agile/Scrum methodologies
• Previous experience in Level 2/3 support roles
• Experience with complex multi-system integrations
• Knowledge of event-driven architecture patterns
• Familiarity with message queues and async processing
• Database administration experience (backups, replication, performance tuning)

Soft Skills & Attributes

Problem-Solving & Analysis

• Strong analytical and debugging skills
• Ability to diagnose complex cross-system issues
• Creative approach to technical challenges
• Proactive identification of potential problems
• Estimation and risk assessment capabilities
• Ability to evaluate trade-offs between different technical approaches
• Strategic thinking for long-term architectural decisions
• Cost-benefit analysis for technical investments

Communication

• Clear written and verbal communication skills
• Excellent remote communication skills (async and real-time)
• Ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
• Strong business acumen and stakeholder management
• Effective presentation skills for technical proposals (in-person and virtual)
• Ability to translate business requirements into technical solutions
• Effective documentation skills
• Professional incident communication during outages
• Active listening and requirements clarification
• Self-directed and proactive in remote work environment

Collaboration

• Team-oriented mindset
• Constructive code review participation
• Mentorship capability for junior developers
• Cross-functional collaboration experience

Time Management

• Ability to prioritize competing demands
• Effective task estimation skills
• Balance between feature development and support duties
• Comfortable with context-switching between projects

Learning & Adaptability

• Self-motivated continuous learner
• Comfortable with rapidly evolving technologies, especially in AI/LLM space
• Ability to quickly understand existing codebases
• Willingness to learn new tools and frameworks
• Staying current with LLM advancements and best practices
• Experimentation mindset for testing new AI capabilities
• Ability to evaluate and adopt emerging AI technologies

Success Metrics

Performance in this role will be evaluated based on:

1. Code Quality
   • Maintainable, well-documented code
   • Adherence to established patterns and standards
   • Successful code review participation
2. Incident Response
   • Mean time to resolution (MTTR) for production issues
   • Quality of root cause analysis
   • Implementation of preventive measures
3. Feature Delivery
   • Timely completion of assigned tasks
   • Quality of implementations
   • Comprehensive testing coverage
4. Infrastructure Management
   • Digital Ocean droplet uptime and availability
   • Resource optimization and cost management
   • Security compliance and patch management
   • Backup and recovery procedures
5. System Reliability
   • Application uptime and performance metrics
   • Successful deployments without rollbacks
   • Proactive identification of issues
6. Workflow Reliability
   • n8n workflow success rates
   • Error handling effectiveness
   • Workflow execution performance
7. Chatbot & LLM Performance
   • Conversation completion rates
   • User satisfaction metrics
   • Bot response accuracy and relevance
   • LLM response quality and appropriateness
   • Token usage optimization and cost management
   • Response latency and performance
8. Collaboration & Leadership
   • Quality and accuracy of effort estimates
   • Stakeholder satisfaction with technical guidance
   • Effectiveness of proposed architectural solutions
   • Clarity of technical documentation and presentations