Senior Python Engineer

About the job

We're seeking an exceptional Senior Python Engineer to take technical leadership of a complex, production-grade codebase. This role involves architecting and developing sophisticated systems that combine AI/LLM integration, code analysis, and security tooling. You'll be responsible for architectural decisions, feature development, team mentorship, and maintaining the highest standards of code quality.

Location: Remote

Experience Level: Senior (5+ years)

Commitment: Full-time

Core Responsibilities

Technical Leadership

Make critical decisions about system architecture, design patterns, and technology choices

Establish and enforce coding standards, review practices, and quality benchmarks

Define and prioritize technical initiatives aligned with product goals

Lead architectural discussions and drive consensus on complex technical decisions

Ensure system performance and scalability for production workloads

Feature Development

Design and implement core system components using modular, extensible architectures

Build and maintain integrations with external APIs and services (LLM providers, databases, etc.)

Develop analysis engines and processing pipelines for complex data workflows

Implement testing frameworks and validation systems

Optimize critical code paths and system bottlenecks

Team Collaboration \& Mentorship

Review pull requests and provide constructive technical feedback

Mentor junior and mid-level engineers in best practices and technical growth

Maintain comprehensive technical documentation and architectural diagrams

Conduct technical presentations and knowledge transfer sessions

Collaborate across functions with stakeholders and team members

Technical Innovation

Stay current with advances in Python ecosystem, AI/ML technologies, and relevant domains

Evaluate and integrate new libraries, frameworks, and tools

Research and prototype solutions to complex technical challenges

Contribute to technical strategy and long-term planning

Required Technical Skills

Python Expertise (Required)

5+ years of professional Python development with advanced proficiency in:

Async/await patterns and concurrent programming

Type hints and Pydantic for data validation

Decorators, metaclasses, and advanced language features

Modern package management (uv, pip, poetry)

Testing frameworks (pytest, mocks, fixtures, test-driven development)

Software Architecture: Experience designing modular, plugin-based systems with clean abstractions

API Design: Creating intuitive interfaces and maintainable code structures

Performance: Profiling, optimization, and handling large-scale data processing

Version Control: Git workflows, code review practices, and collaborative development

LLM \& AI Integration (Preferred)

LLM APIs: Hands-on experience with OpenAI, Anthropic, or similar providers including:

Function/tool calling and structured outputs

Prompt engineering and optimization

Session management and conversation state

Token tracking and cost optimization

RAG Systems (Nice to have): Experience with vector databases (ChromaDB, Pinecone, Weaviate), embeddings, semantic search, LlamaIndex or LangChain

AI/ML Concepts: Understanding of temperature, sampling, context windows, and model behavior

Code Analysis \& Parsing

AST \& Static Analysis: Experience with abstract syntax trees, code parsing, and program analysis

Pattern Matching: Regex, semantic search, and code query techniques

Control Flow: Understanding of call graphs, data flow, and execution path analysis

Smart Contracts (Preferred)

Solidity and/or Rust: Ability to read and understand smart contract code

Blockchain Fundamentals: Knowledge of EVM, transactions, gas mechanics, and contract execution patterns

Security Awareness: Familiarity with common vulnerability patterns (reentrancy, access control, etc.)

Tooling: Experience with Foundry, Hardhat, Anchor, or similar development frameworks

Additional Skills

CLI Development: Building command-line tools (Typer, Click, argparse)

Web Frameworks (Nice to have): Flask, FastAPI for APIs and web interfaces

DevOps Basics: CI/CD, Docker, GitHub Actions

Data Storage: Working with JSON, databases, and caching systems

Software Development Best Practices

Clean Code: SOLID principles, design patterns, and writing maintainable, extensible code

Documentation: Clear technical documentation, architecture decision records (ADRs), and API documentation

Testing Strategy: Comprehensive testing approaches including unit, integration, and end-to-end tests

Code Review: Effective review practices with constructive, actionable feedback

Agile Development: Experience with iterative development and continuous improvement

Security Mindset: Awareness of common security vulnerabilities and defensive programming practices

Preferred Qualifications Experience

5+ years of professional Python development

2+ years in a technical leadership or senior engineering role

Experience building AI/LLM-powered applications in production

Background in security, static analysis, or developer tools

Experience with smart contracts (Solidity, Rust) or blockchain technologies (strong plus)

Active open-source contributions (strong plus)

Technical Accomplishments

Built and deployed production systems with complex workflows

Designed and implemented modular, plugin-based architectures

Experience with large-scale data processing or analysis systems

Technical writing, blog posts, or conference presentations (plus)