Senior Backend Engineer
Summary
Senior Backend Engineer building and scaling the distributed backend systems, high-performance APIs, and data pipelines behind enterprise AI products, on-site in London. Core stack is Python (FastAPI/Flask/Django), PostgreSQL, Redis, message brokers, and cloud infrastructure (Azure preferred) with Docker/Kubernetes.
Senior Backend Engineer | Enterprise AI
£130k–£140k + Equity | London (On-site)
We're looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to join a fast-growing technology company building enterprise AI products used by some of the world's largest organisations.
This role is focused on designing and scaling the backend systems that power complex AI applications. You'll work on everything from distributed services and high-performance APIs to data pipelines and cloud infrastructure, helping build reliable, secure, and scalable systems that support production AI workloads.
Beyond writing great code, you'll influence technical direction, mentor other engineers, and work closely with product, infrastructure, and machine learning teams to solve challenging engineering problems.
What you'll do day-to-day:
- Design, build, and maintain scalable backend services and APIs
- Develop high-performance data pipelines and distributed systems
- Build infrastructure that supports production AI and machine learning workloads
- Optimise PostgreSQL databases for scale, reliability, and performance
- Implement asynchronous processing, messaging systems, and event-driven architectures
- Improve system reliability, observability, and operational performance
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver new platform capabilities
- Lead technical discussions, review code, and mentor other engineers
- Contribute to engineering standards, architecture decisions, and best practices
What we're looking for:
- Strong backend engineering experience building production systems at scale (7+ years preferred)
- Excellent Python skills, with experience using frameworks such as FastAPI, Flask, or Django
- Strong knowledge of PostgreSQL, including performance tuning and database scaling
- Experience building distributed systems and REST APIs
- Familiarity with Redis, caching strategies, and asynchronous task processing (Celery or similar)
- Experience with message brokers such as Kafka, RabbitMQ, or Azure Service Bus
- Cloud experience (Azure preferred, AWS or GCP also considered)
- Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, and modern engineering practices
- Strong understanding of backend security, authentication, and data protection
- Someone who enjoys solving complex technical challenges and taking ownership of systems from design through production
Why this role is exciting:
- Build backend systems that power cutting-edge AI products
- Solve large-scale engineering challenges across cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, and data processing
- Work alongside experienced product, infrastructure, and AI engineers
- High ownership, rapid iteration, and the opportunity to influence technical direction
- Join a collaborative engineering team where your work has immediate impact
Get in touch to hear more.