Senior Backend Engineer - Commodities

Kpler
Athens, Greece
HybridCareer-pivot friendly

Who this role is best for

Geared toward experienced backend engineers comfortable with high-throughput streaming systems and cross-functional collaboration, with a focus on commodities and energy domains in a full-time, on-site role in Athens.

Best fit for

  • Experienced backend engineers with a background in data-intensive systems and a willingness to mentor others.
    — “Mentor mid-level engineers through technical design guidance, code reviews, and pair programming”
  • Individuals with a proven ability to manage production cloud infrastructure and ensure system reliability.
    — “Direct experience managing production cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred), including SLO establishment, incident management, and deep observability”

Things to consider

  • The role involves on-call responsibilities and incident response, which may impact work-life balance.
    — “Guarantee production operational excellence through rigorous SLO management, comprehensive system observability, on-call rotation, and incident response”
  • Candidates should be prepared to integrate with marine tracking and data platform teams, requiring cross-team coordination.
    — “Collaborate with core marine tracking and data platform teams to seamlessly integrate inland data feeds”

How to stand out

  • Highlight your experience in event-driven systems and Kafka-based architectures in your resume and interviews.
    — “Proven experience architecting event-driven or data-intensive systems using streaming technologies like Kafka or similar message queues”
  • Emphasize your ability to work across backend and frontend technologies to show versatility.
    — “Strong backend engineering mastery in Python and REST API design (e.g., FastAPI), alongside comfort contributing to frontend surfaces (TypeScript/Vue)”
  • Demonstrate your track record in mentoring and leading technical discussions during interviews.
    — “Demonstrated capability to mentor engineers, guide technical discussions, and engage directly with end-users or stakeholders”
  • Showcase your hands-on experience with IoT telemetry or time-series data in your application materials.
    — “Hands-on background handling IoT telemetry, remote sensor feeds, time-series data, or geospatial datasets”
  • Include any experience with Scala or large-scale Elasticsearch deployments to stand out among candidates.
    — “Experience with Scala or running Elasticsearch clusters at scale”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • successful platform component design
  • high-quality production systems
  • accurate and reliable data
Typical background
software engineeringdistributed systemscloud infrastructure

Skills & requirements

Required

Distributed SystemsStreaming TechnologiesPythonREST API DesignProduction Cloud InfrastructureMentorshipTechnical Design GuidanceCode ReviewsPair ProgrammingTeam-wide Engineering Conventions

Preferred

ScalaElasticsearchIot TelemetryRemote Sensor FeedsTime-series DataGeospatial DatasetsEnergyOil & GasGlobal Commodities MarketsEarly Or Founding Engineer

Stack & domain

PythonREST APIFastapiTypeScriptVueKafkaAirflowElasticsearchIot TelemetryTime-series DataGeospatial DatasetsCommunicationProblem-solvingTeamworkLeadershipCommoditiesEnergyMaritimeSoftware Engineering

About the role

Original posting from Kpler via Lever

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.

-

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.

-

Proven experience architecting event-driven or data-intensive systems using streaming technologies like Kafka or similar message queues.

-

Strong backend engineering mastery in Python and REST API design (e.g., FastAPI), alongside comfort contributing to frontend surfaces (TypeScript/Vue).

-

Direct experience managing production cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred), including SLO establishment, incident management, and deep observability.

-

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.

-

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.

We are a dynamic company dedicated to nurturing connections and innovating solutions to tackle market challenges head-on. If you thrive on customer satisfaction and turning ideas into reality, then you’ve found your ideal destination. Are you ready to embark on this exciting journey with us?

We make things happen

We act decisively and with purpose, going the extra mile.

We build
together

We foster relationships and develop creative solutions to address market challenges.

We are here to help

We are accessible and supportive to colleagues and clients with a friendly approach.

Our People Pledge

Don’t meet every single requirement? Research shows that women and people of color are less likely than others to apply if they feel like they don’t match 100% of the job requirements. Don’t let the confidence gap stand in your way, we’d love to hear from you! We understand that experience comes in many different forms and are dedicated to adding new perspectives to the team.

Kpler is committed to providing a fair, inclusive and diverse work-environment. We believe that different perspectives lead to better ideas, and better ideas allow us to better understand the needs and interests of our diverse, global community. We welcome people of different backgrounds, experiences, abilities and perspectives and are an equal opportunity employer.

By applying, I confirm that I have read and accept the Staff Privacy Notice

Source: Kpler careers (Lever)

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