Senior Backend Engineer (Python/Data)

TL;DR

Senior Backend Engineer (Python/Data): Designing and operating backend systems and data pipelines for investigative journalism with an accent on data engineering, distributed systems, and cloud infrastructure. Focus on building resilient, scalable data products that empower journalists to uncover stories from complex, unstructured datasets.

Location: Must be based in Sofia, Bulgaria (Hybrid model: 50% onsite required).

Company

The hirify.global is a world-leading business news organization providing essential services to a global audience of over one million digital subscribers.

What you will do

• Design and maintain scalable backend services, APIs, and infrastructure in a cloud environment.
• Build and operate robust data pipelines to ingest, clean, and model complex investigative datasets.
• Collaborate with journalists and product managers to translate editorial needs into scalable data solutions.
• Ensure high standards of software quality through testing, observability, and security.
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to engineering best practices.
• Identify opportunities to integrate AI and new technologies into newsroom workflows.

Requirements

• Strong experience in backend engineering designing production-grade distributed systems and APIs.
• Excellent Python skills for backend services and data processing.
• Solid experience as a data engineer using workflow orchestration tools like Apache Airflow.
• Experience with AWS cloud platforms.
• Strong communication skills for technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Interest in journalism and using data to answer real-world questions.

Nice to have

• Strong SQL skills and experience with databases like BigQuery, Redshift, or PostgreSQL.
• Experience working with unstructured or semi-structured data at scale.
• Data Science experience or education.
• Experience building internal tools or lightweight user-facing applications (e.g., Streamlit).

Culture & Benefits

• Annual bonus scheme and 25 days paid leave.
• Dedicated training budget for conferences and courses.
• Comprehensive benefits including life insurance, food allowance, and Multisport card.
• Supportive, diverse, and inclusive work environment.
• Hybrid working model promoting collaboration and peer learning.