Lead Python Developer
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Lead Backend Engineer (Python)
Location: Kirkland, WA (Hybrid during onboarding)
Employment Type: Full-Time
Reports To: Director
Compensation: $150,000 – $180,000 DOE + Comprehensive Benefits
About the Company:
Our client is an award-winning technology company in the entertainment and media space, consistently recognized as one of the Best Places to Work over multiple years. Operating on a global scale, they build products used worldwide and are currently experiencing significant hyper-growth driven by strong market demand and continued innovation. The organization is known for developing cutting-edge, AI-powered platforms that are transforming how live and digital experiences are produced and delivered. With a strong culture of innovation, collaboration, and ownership, this is an environment where engineers have real influence on both product direction and technical strategy—and where career advancement happens quickly for high performers.
About the Role:
We are seeking a Lead Backend Engineer (Python) to play a key role in building and scaling the company’s core backend services and APIs. This is a hands-on technical leadership position where you will write production code daily while also mentoring engineers and shaping backend architecture. You will work closely with engineering leadership and frontend teams to deliver highly scalable, reliable, and well-architected systems. As the team continues to grow, this role offers a clear fast-track path into broader technical leadership and people management responsibilities. This position is ideal for someone who thrives in fast-moving, high-growth environments, is comfortable with ambiguity, and enjoys solving complex problems using modern backend and AI-driven technologies.
Key Responsibilities:
- Technical Leadership
- Design and implement core backend APIs and services, including user management, authentication, and system integrations
- Make architectural decisions that balance rapid delivery with long-term scalability and maintainability
- Establish backend engineering standards, testing strategies, and code review best practices
- Partner closely with frontend engineers to define clean, well-documented API contracts
- Proactively identify, prioritize, and resolve technical debt
- Hands-On Backend Development
- Write high-quality, production-grade Python code on a daily basis
- Build and maintain RESTful APIs with strong test coverage
- Design data models and database schemas for core platform services
- Implement secure authentication and authorization workflows
- Develop background job processing and integration services
- Mentorship & Team GrowthMentor junior and mid-level engineers through code reviews and pairing sessions
- Support career development and technical growth across the backend team
- Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performing engineering culture
- Participate in hiring and onboarding as the team scales
- Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Partner with engineering leadership to shape the technical roadmap and sprint priorities
- Work closely with DevOps on CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure, and monitoring
- Participate in sprint planning, backlog grooming, and retrospectives
- Clearly communicate technical decisions and tradeoffs to non-technical stakeholders
Required Qualifications:
- 5+ years of professional software development experience 3+ years of backend development using PythonStrong experience with backend frameworks such as FastAPI, Flask, Django, or similar
- Solid understanding of relational databases and SQL (PostgreSQL preferred)
- Proven experience designing and implementing RESTful APIsStrong testing mindset and experience writing maintainable, well-documented code
- Experience mentoring or leading other engineers
- Proficiency with Git and collaborative development workflows
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience with async Python (asyncio, ASGI frameworks)
- Familiarity with AI/ML systems or LLM integrations
- Experience with background job processing (Celery, RQ, etc.)Knowledge of containerization tools such as Docker
- Experience with real-time communication (WebSockets, SSE)
- Understanding of authentication protocols (OAuth2, JWT, session-based auth)
- Cloud experience (Azure preferred; AWS/GCP also valued)
- Startup or high-growth company experienceAI-Assisted Development Culture
This organization actively embraces AI-assisted development. Engineers are encouraged to use modern AI tools to accelerate development while maintaining high standards of quality and security.
Candidates should be comfortable:
Using AI tools to assist with design, debugging, and automation
Critically reviewing AI-generated code and configurations
Knowing when to rely on AI—and when deep engineering judgment is required
No prior AI specialization is required—just curiosity and openness to learning.
What’s Offered
Competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits (Health, Dental, Vision)
Generous PTO and sick leave
Opportunity to work on global, high-impact products
Exposure to cutting-edge AI and backend technologies
Fast-track career growth in a rapidly scaling organization
Direct access to engineering leadership and decision-makers
Hybrid work model with flexibility after onboarding
Small, collaborative team where your work has visible impact