Senior Python Engineer

Senior Python/Backend Engineer

AI Startup · Berlin (Remote) · Contract

ABOUT US

Our client is a fast-growing AI startup based in Berlin, building intelligent tools that help businesses automate and scale through cutting edge machine learning and API-driven products. Backed by leading investors and growing rapidly, we're a small, senior team where every engineer has direct product impact from day one.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We're looking for a Senior Python Backend Engineer to join our core engineering team and take ownership of the backend systems and APIs that power our AI product. You'll work at the intersection of backend engineering and applied AI, building reliable, scalable infrastructure used by developers and enterprise customers alike.

• Design, build, and maintain production-grade Python backend systems and public-facing APIs
• Own the API surface end-to-end from design and versioning to performance and long-term evolution
• Integrate and abstract AI/ML models behind clean, elegant developer-facing interfaces
• Collaborate closely with product, machine learning, and infrastructure teams to ship features that matter
• Iterate quickly based on real usage data and user feedback, we move fast

ABOUT YOU

• Strong Python backend experience, with a focus on external/public APIs
• Proficient with FastAPI (or similar) and experienced with async patterns, concurrency, and production debugging
• Have owned or significantly contributed to public API design - versioning, consistency, long-term evolution
• Pragmatic and product-minded - you prioritise impact, avoid over-engineering, and take ownership
• Comfortable making decisions independently while collaborating closely with cross-functional teams
• Experience in fast-paced startup or scale-up environments

Bonus points if you have:

• Experience with Docker, uvicorn/gunicorn, health checks and API deployment patterns
• Integrated AI/ML or image models behind APIs - latency, inference, abstraction
• Built developer-facing tooling or integrations

THE DETAILS

• 📍 Berlin-based startup, fully remote contract
• 📅 Initial 6 month contract with strong likelihood of extension
• 🌍 English-speaking team