Lead Software Engineer - Python/Data Pipelines

We’re working with a Series A, cybersecurity startup that is looking for a Lead Software Engineer to join its engineering team. This is a hands-on engineering role for someone who enjoys solving complex technical problems, designing scalable systems, and building large-scale data pipelines from the ground up. The environment is heavily Python-based, and this person will contribute directly to both architecture and production code while helping mentor other engineers.

Responsibilities:

• Design and build large-scale data pipelines from scratch, taking ownership from initial architecture through production deployment.
• Build systems that ingest, process, transform, and analyze large volumes of data from multiple sources.
• Own complex backend engineering problems end-to-end.
• Break large technical challenges into manageable components and drive them through implementation.
• Design scalable, reliable backend systems and make thoughtful architectural decisions.
• Write production Python and contribute to a backend environment built heavily around Django and FastAPI.
• Identify performance bottlenecks, scalability concerns, and data quality issues.
• Improve the reliability, maintainability, and performance of existing systems.
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to engineering best practices.

Required Skills:

• Experience with Django and/or similar Python backend frameworks.
• Demonstrated experience designing and building data pipelines from the ground up.
• Experience working with large or complex datasets and production data-processing systems.
• Experience with high-volume ingestion, ETL/ELT, streaming, or event-driven data architectures.
• Experience with technologies such as Kafka, Spark, Airflow, or similar data-processing/orchestration platforms.
• Data quality, validation, or observability experience
• Strong systems design and software engineering fundamentals.
• Experience designing scalable backend or distributed systems.
• Practical understanding of algorithms and data structures.
• Ability to independently own complex technical projects from design through production.
• Experience mentoring or providing technical guidance to other engineers.