Senior Backend Engineer - Commodities

At Kpler, we are dedicated to helping our clients navigate complex markets with ease. By simplifying global trade information and providing valuable insights, we empower organisations to make informed decisions in commodities, energy, and maritime sectors.

Since our founding in 2014, we have focused on delivering top-tier intelligence through user-friendly platforms. Our team of over 850 experts from 69 countries works tirelessly to transform intricate data into actionable strategies, ensuring our clients stay ahead in a dynamic market landscape. Join us to leverage cutting-edge innovation for impactful results and experience unparalleled support on your journey to success.
Key Responsibilities
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Design, build, and operate major platform components end-to-end, spanning high-throughput streaming ingestion (Kafka, Airflow, Python/FastAPI) to web applications (TypeScript/Vue).
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Lead subsystem architecture by writing design specifications, conducting peer reviews, and making pragmatic build-versus-adapt decisions.
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Guarantee production operational excellence through rigorous SLO management, comprehensive system observability, on-call rotation, and incident response.
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Architect data quality frameworks—including telemetry validation, reconciliation, and time-series monitoring—to ensure field sensor data is accurate and reliable.
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Collaborate with core marine tracking and data platform teams to seamlessly integrate inland data feeds into Kpler's broader platform architecture.
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Mentor mid-level engineers through technical design guidance, code reviews, and pair programming while setting team-wide engineering conventions.
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Partner directly with early customers (traders, analysts, operations teams) and product leaders to demo features, gather feedback, and shape product roadmaps.
Experience & Background
What you'll need (Must-haves)
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5+ years of professional software engineering experience building and operating distributed production systems.
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Proven experience architecting event-driven or data-intensive systems using streaming technologies like Kafka or similar message queues.
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Strong backend engineering mastery in Python and REST API design (e.g., FastAPI), alongside comfort contributing to frontend surfaces (TypeScript/Vue).
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Direct experience managing production cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred), including SLO establishment, incident management, and deep observability.
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Demonstrated capability to mentor engineers, guide technical discussions, and engage directly with end-users or stakeholders.
Nice-to-haves
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Experience with Scala or running Elasticsearch clusters at scale.
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Hands-on background handling IoT telemetry, remote sensor feeds, time-series data, or geospatial datasets.
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Domain knowledge in energy, oil & gas, or global commodities markets.
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Prior experience as an early or founding engineer in a new product initiative.