Lead Backend Engineer

About Us: At Disruptive Industries, we are pioneers of innovation in a world where informed decisions are crucial to success. We specialise in delivering transformative technology solutions that redefine the standards for strategic intelligence and risk awareness. As natural disruptors, we challenge the status quo, pushing beyond conventional limits to provide deeper, faster insights into the threats and risks that matter most to our clients.

The Opportunity: As our Lead Backend / Data Engineer, you will shape the future of our application's backend architecture, APIs, and infrastructure. You'll be empowered to design and develop robust, scalable, and secure backend solutions that directly impact how government and private sector organisations understand and mitigate threats.

We're looking for an innovative engineer who enjoys using the latest technologies strategically—not just because they're trending—and thrives when collaborating closely with Infrastructure Engineers, Frontend Developers, and Data Scientists. This role offers significant autonomy, professional growth, and the unique opportunity to meaningfully contribute to mission-critical solutions.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, and deploy robust backend systems, including the application's API layers, capable of efficiently handling large-scale geographic and time-series data feeds, as well as streaming data integrations.

• Lead the implementation of event-driven architectures and messaging frameworks (e.g., Kafka, RabbitMQ, AWS SQS/SNS).

• Implement, optimise, and maintain databases (relational and graph) tailored for effective management and querying of large geo-spatial and temporal datasets.

• Collaborate closely with our Head of Engineering, Lead Cloud Engineer, and senior Data Engineers to align backend architecture with both short-term and strategic product goals.

• Provide line management and technical leadership to junior data engineers, supporting their professional growth and fostering best practices.

• Conduct code reviews, establish best practices, and ensure high standards in backend development.

• Contribute to the integration and maintenance of modern backend technologies, including GraphQL, Kubernetes, serverless frameworks, and infrastructure-as-code tooling like Terraform.

Essential Technical Skills:

• Backend Programming Expertise:

  • At least 5 years of backend development experience with strong proficiency in languages such as Python, TypeScript, or Rust.

  • Proven ability to build secure, scalable, and maintainable backend services and API layers.

• Event-Driven Architecture:

  • Demonstrable experience designing and implementing event-driven architectures and messaging solutions (e.g., Kafka, RabbitMQ, AWS EventBridge, AWS SQS/SNS).

• Database Proficiency:

  • Deep understanding and practical experience with relational (PostgreSQL, MySQL) databases.

  • Familiarity with graph databases (e.g., Neo4j) and strong data modelling skills, particularly for geo-spatial and temporal data.

• API & Microservices Architecture:

  • Expertise in designing and consuming RESTful and GraphQL APIs.

  • Demonstrated experience developing microservices architectures, including integration with streaming data sources (e.g., Kafka, Pulsar).

  • Containerisation of services (e.g. Docker, Podman), ideally using multi-stage builds to facilitate low-footprint images for deployment.

• Big Data & Geo-spatial Data Handling:

  • Experience working with large datasets, optimising data structures and queries for performance, particularly in relation to geo-spatial and temporal data (e.g. BigQuery).

  • Familiarity with data orchestration solutions (e.g. Prefect, Airflow, AWS Step Functions).

Desirable Technical Skills (Advantageous but not essential):

• Containerisation & Orchestration: Experience Kubernetes and Helm for container management and deployment. Ideally experience with GitOps tooling such as FluxCD.

• Cloud Infrastructure: Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform, Ansible). GCP skills are favourable.

• DevOps Practices: Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines (e.g. GitHub Actions) within an end-to-end DevOps cultural mindset for smooth backend deployments.

• Mentorship & Team Collaboration: Previous experience line managing or mentoring junior developers or working collaboratively in cross-functional teams.

Security Clearance:

This role will require SC clearance. Existing clearance is advantageous but not required at application. The company will sponsor your SC clearance upon employment.

Work-life and Perks:

• Hybrid working arrangement: Flexible schedule combining work-from-home and collaborative time at our London hub.

• 25 days of annual leave plus bank holidays and your birthday off!

• Comprehensive benefits package including professional development support and wellness initiatives.