Senior Backend Engineer (Python / Django)

Role overview

Backend development and architecture

• Lead Python/Django backend development, maintenance, optimization, code review, and technical guidance.
• Design and maintain REST APIs and backend services for Android and iOS applications.
• Improve architecture, scalability, code quality, maintainability, and production reliability.
• Optimize Django ORM, SQL, transactions, indexing, database connections, caching, queues, and asynchronous jobs.
• Investigate technical debt, architectural weaknesses, recurring defects, concurrency issues, and production incidents.

Dispatch and location services

• Build and maintain ride request, driver availability, rider-driver matching, dispatch, and trip lifecycle services.
• Troubleshoot dispatch algorithms, proximity assignment, retries, timeouts, fallback mechanisms, duplicate assignments, and driver-state issues.
• Work with GPS updates, geospatial queries, distance calculations, geofencing, routing, and ETA integrations.
• Maintain accurate cancellation, trip completion, pricing, payment, and transaction handling.

Infrastructure and integrations

• Manage and optimize production backend infrastructure on GCP or a comparable environment.
• Troubleshoot servers, networking, deployments, database connectivity, Redis, background workers, and external services.
• Improve CI/CD, configuration, monitoring, alerting, backups, rollback procedures, load testing, scaling, security, and disaster recovery.
• Troubleshoot backend integrations with Kotlin Android and Swift iOS apps, Firebase, authentication, synchronization, push notifications, and real-time updates.

Required qualifications

• At least 8 years of professional software development experience, including substantial backend engineering experience.
• Strong hands-on professional experience developing and maintaining production Python/Django applications is mandatory.
• Expertise in Django ORM, middleware, authentication, permissions, migrations, transactions, and performance optimization.
• Extensive REST API experience; strong MySQL and SQL skills, including query optimization, indexing, locking, and transactions.
• Practical experience with Redis, caching, queues, background jobs, and asynchronous processing.
• Experience deploying and maintaining production systems on GCP or a comparable cloud environment.
• Experience with Git, pull requests, automated testing, Docker, CI/CD, and production deployments.
• Ability to debug complex codebases and production incidents, make independent technical decisions, and provide hands-on technical leadership.
• Strong understanding of application security, architecture, scalability, and performance; strong English communication skills.

Preferred experience

• Ride-hailing, on-demand platforms, food delivery, logistics, or similar real-time services are strongly preferred.
• Geolocation, GPS tracking, geospatial queries, geofencing, routing, ETA, real-time dispatch, and high-concurrency systems are advantageous.
• WebSockets, Firebase Cloud Messaging, Cloudflare, DNS, CDN, WAF, networking, monitoring, production security, and Kotlin/Swift mobile integrations are preferred.

Success measures