Backend Software Engineer - Python
Location: London (in-office 4 days per week, non-negotiable) - Office is near Holborn EC1 - Please do not apply if you cannot get to the office 4 days (Mon-Thursday) per week
Type: Full-time
Reports to: Head of Engineering
Salary: £90,000-£105,000 + benefits
Are you a Senior Python Backend Engineer who thrives on designing and scaling complex systems? Do you enjoy working on data-intensive platforms involving real-time pipelines, streaming architectures, and graph-based services?
This is a hands on role within a small, research driven engineering team working on high complexity systems. You will take ownership of key components from architecture through to production, while contributing to the overall technical direction.
Key Responsibilities
- Design, build, and own backend services and data pipelines in Python
- Develop and operate streaming systems using Kafka or similar technologies
- Work with graph based data structures and algorithms to support analytics and decision making
- Build reliable, scalable systems that process real time data from distributed edge devices
- Lead technical decisions across architecture, tooling, and system design
- Collaborate with data scientists and ML engineers to deploy models into production
- Mentor engineers and contribute to engineering best practices
- Improve observability, monitoring, and incident response processes
- Write maintainable, well tested code and contribute to code reviews
Requirements
- In depth experience of building and operating backend systems in production
- Strong proficiency in Python
- Experience with streaming systems (Kafka, Pulsar, or similar)
- Familiarity with graph data structures and algorithms
- Experience working with databases (MongoDB or similar)
- Solid understanding of distributed systems concepts and trade offs
- Proven experience owning systems end to end
- Experience with Git and collaborative development workflows
- Ability to make independent technical decisions and clearly communicate trade offs
- Comfortable working in a small, high ownership team environment
Compensation & Benefits
- Private health and dental coverage
- 25 days holiday
- Enhanced parental leave
- High quality hardware
- Additional perks (workspace benefits, team events, and more)