Senior Back-End Engineer (Python / Azure)

Project description

Senior Python engineer designing, building and operating REST and asynchronous APIs and integration services on Azure. Owns reliability, security and performance of the services in scope, from data model to observability.

Responsibilities

• Develop Python REST and async APIs with FastAPI / Django; publish and version OpenAPI contracts.
• Model relational (PostgreSQL) and NoSQL (Cosmos DB) schemas; manage migrations.
• Implement messaging via Azure Service Bus / Event Grid and background processing with Celery and Azure Functions.
• Configure authentication and authorisation (OAuth2, JWT, Azure AD / Entra ID), Redis caching and API gateway routing / versioning (Azure API Management).
• Containerise services (Docker) and prepare them for AKS / Container Apps deployment through CI/CD.
• Instrument structured logging, tracing and metrics with Application Insights / OpenTelemetry; define alerts.
• Provide production support for owned services, including root-cause analysis and post-incident actions. Responsibilities and accountabilities
• Service reliability, API contracts and backward compatibility of owned services.
• Data integrity and secure handling of secrets (Key Vault) and personal data in line with Client policy.
• API performance and scalability against agreed non-functional requirements.
• Unit and integration test coverage; quality of pull requests reviewed.
• Production support of owned services within the agreed support model.

SKILLS

Must have

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 7+ years of back-end development, of which 4+ in Python (FastAPI / Django) and 3+ building and operating services on Azure.
• Expert Python 3.11+, FastAPI and/or Django (DRF), async programming, Pydantic.
• Azure: Service Bus, Event Grid, Functions, API Management, Key Vault, Cosmos DB, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, AKS / Container Apps, Application Insights.
• PostgreSQL and NoSQL data modelling, SQLAlchemy / Django ORM, Redis.
• Security: OAuth2 / OIDC, JWT, Azure AD / Entra ID app registrations, OWASP API top 10.
• Docker, Git, CI/CD (Azure DevOps / GitHub Actions), infrastructure as code (Bicep or Terraform) at working level.
• Testing: pytest, contract and integration testing; observability with OpenTelemetry.

Nice to have

• AWS or GCP equivalents (SQS/SNS, Lambda, Pub/Sub). • Kafka / event-driven architecture patterns, CQRS. • Azure certifications (AZ-204, AZ-305). • Experience in financial services, sovereign wealth / investment holding or other regulated enterprise environments.