Lead Backend & Cloud Engineer (Python)

About Us:
Join our early-stage team building an intelligent AI assistant designed to revolutionize project management. We're building a cloud-native SaaS product on AWS using Python and React.

The Role:
As the Lead Backend & Cloud Engineer, you will be instrumental in shaping the core foundation.
You'll spearhead the design, development, and deployment of our backend systems and cloud infrastructure on AWS. You'll suggest key architectural decisions, ensure scalability and reliability, and lay the groundwork for our AI-driven features.

Responsibilities:
Design, build, and maintain scalable, high-performance backend services using Python (FastAPI).
Architect, provision, and manage robust cloud infrastructure on AWS (e.g., Lambda, API Gateway, SQS/SNS, EC2/Fargate, RDS/DynamoDB, VPC, IAM).
Design and implement database schemas (SQL and/or NoSQL) optimized for performance and scalability.
Develop robust APIs for internal services and potentially external consumption.
Implement security best practices across the backend and cloud infrastructure.
Establish and manage CI/CD pipelines for automated testing and deployment.
Monitor system performance, troubleshoot issues, and ensure high availability.
Mentor junior engineers (as the team grows).

Qualifications (Must-Haves):
5+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a strong focus on backend development.
Proven experience designing, building, and deploying complex applications on AWS.
Deep understanding of core AWS services relevant to web applications and event-driven architectures.
Expertise in Python and experience with modern web frameworks (e.g., FastAPI, Flask).
Strong experience designing and building RESTful APIs.
Proficiency with relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL) and/or NoSQL databases (e.g., DynamoDB).
Experience with containerization (Docker) and CI/CD tools (e.g., GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, AWS CodePipeline).
Excellent problem-solving skills and architectural design capabilities.
Strong communication skills.

Qualifications (Nice-to-Haves):
Experience with event-driven architectures and message queues (SQS, EventBridge, Kafka, RabbitMQ).
Familiarity with infrastructure as code (Terraform, CloudFormation).
Experience integrating with third-party APIs (Jira, Slack, Telegram, Git platforms).
Understanding of AI/ML concepts or experience working alongside AI teams.