Backend Developer - Senior Associate

Job purpose

We are looking for a contract Backend Engineer to help build and refine analytical, data-driven web applications and supporting infrastructure for a quantitative trading firm. This role is hands-on and implementation-driven, working with production microservices, databases, and automated workflows.

Key responsibilities • Build and upgrade microservices and workflows written in Python/Pandas • Design and maintain RESTful APIs that serve time-series and quantitative data • Integrate with database storage across MongoDB, SQL Server, and PostgreSQL • Reason about business logic as it relates to backend data transformations • Collaborate with front-end developers to design APIs that provide the necessary data to the UI • Make informed decisions about where certain pieces of business logic belong in the stack • Optimize query performance for large datasets and frequent updates • Debug issues related to job dependency management and data integrity • Implement and maintain CI/CD pipelines for backend services • Ensure system reliability through monitoring, logging, and alerting

Key competencies Required Skills • Strong experience with Python (3.9+) and data manipulation libraries (Pandas, NumPy) • Proficiency building microservices using FastAPI or similar async frameworks • Solid understanding of enterprise-level data architecture and design patterns • Experience with both relational (SQL Server, PostgreSQL) and NoSQL (MongoDB) databases • Good understanding of SQL Server stored procedures with the ability to alter or create them as needed • Working knowledge of containers (Docker) and cloud platforms (GCP/Kubernetes) • Experience designing and implementing RESTful APIs collaboratively with UI developers • Strong grasp of software engineering fundamentals including data structures, algorithms, and design patterns • Knowledge of code performance optimization and memory efficiency • Familiarity with message brokers and event-driven architectures (e.g., Kafka, RabbitMQ, or Pub/Sub) • Experience with version control (Git) including branching strategies, code reviews, and PR workflows • Understanding of authentication and authorization patterns (OAuth2, JWT, API keys) • Ability to work independently within an existing, complex codebase • Strong debugging and troubleshooting skills in distributed systems

Nice to Have • Experience with financial, trading, or analytical applications • Full proficiency handling time-series data as well as streaming/real-time data • Familiarity with market data from industry vendors such as Bloomberg, Factset, or Refinitiv • Experience with task scheduling and orchestration tools (Airflow, Prefect, or similar) • Focus on software testing and validation, including unit, integration, and performance testing • Knowledge of caching strategies (Redis, Memcached) for high-throughput systems • Exposure to infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform, Helm, Kustomize) • Experience with observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack, or similar)