Senior Python Engineer

Marks Sattin; West of England; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 85,000; Full time

Job summary

Global Aerospace & Defence Technology Organisation in Bristol is seeking an Applications Development Engineer (Python) to help modernise and scale high-speed software platforms used in critical programmes. You will design and optimise Python services, contribute to scalable distributed systems, and operate containerised workloads in Kubernetes to ensure performance and reliability.

Join a high-performance engineering team tackling near real-time workloads, with exposure to cloud platforms and

Qualifications

• Design high-performance Python services and APIs for near real-time workloads.
• Profile and optimise applications for latency, throughput and resource utilisation.
• Architect scalable, distributed systems balancing performance and maintainability.
• Build containerised services within Kubernetes ensuring reliability and observability.
• Collaborate across engineering, platform and domain teams to deliver robust solutions.

Responsibilities

• Design, build and optimise high-performance Python services and APIs supporting near real-time workloads.
• Contribute to the architecture of scalable, resilient distributed systems, balancing performance, maintainability and operational excellence.
• Profile, troubleshoot and tune applications to improve latency, throughput and resource utilisation.
• Build and operate containerised services within Kubernetes environments, ensuring reliability, observability and security.
• Collaborate closely with engineering, platform and domain teams to deliver robust solutions across the software lifecycle.

Skills

Python

Architecture

Performance tuning

Kubernetes

Docker

Cloud platforms

Event-driven systems

API development

Tools

Kafka

RabbitMQ

WebSockets

FastAPI

Flask

Django

Docker

Job description

Applications Development Engineer (Python) | Global Aerospace & Defence Technology Organisation | Bristol

We're partnering with a globally recognised aerospace and defence technology organisation as they continue to invest in modernising and scaling the software platforms that underpin critical national and international programmes.

This is an opportunity to join a high-performing engineering team building low-latency, near real-time systems that operate at scale in a highly complex and performance-sensitive environment. You'll play a key role in designing and optimising core services, influencing architectural decisions, and helping shape platforms where reliability, scalability and performance are business-critical.

What You'll Do

• Design, build and optimise high-performance Python services and APIs supporting near real-time workloads.
• Contribute to the architecture of scalable, resilient distributed systems, balancing performance, maintainability and operational excellence.
• Profile, troubleshoot and tune applications to improve latency, throughput and resource utilisation.
• Build and operate containerised services within Kubernetes environments, ensuring reliability, observability and security.
• Collaborate closely with engineering, platform and domain teams to deliver robust solutions across the software lifecycle.

What You'll Bring

• Strong understanding of software architecture, design patterns and engineering best practices.
• Proven expertise in performance optimisation, including CPU, memory, I/O and concurrency tuning.
• Experience building event-driven, streaming or near real-time systems using technologies such as Kafka, RabbitMQ or WebSockets.
• Strong API development experience using frameworks such as FastAPI, Flask or Django.
• Hands‑on experience with Docker, Kubernetes and modern cloud‑native deployment practices.
• Strong troubleshooting and root‑cause analysis skills across applications, infrastructure and distributed environments.
• Exposure to cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure or GCP would be advantageous.
• Experience with lower‑level performance optimisation technologies such as Cython, Rust or C extensions would be beneficial.

This is an opportunity to work on genuinely mission‑critical platforms where engineering quality, performance and reliability are paramount. You'll have the chance to influence core systems, contribute to technical direction, and solve complex challenges alongside experienced engineers in a globally respected organisation.