Software Engineer Backend AI Practice Team

American Bureau of Shipping; Warrington; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading classification society based in Warrington is looking for an experienced Backend Engineer to join their AI Practice Team. The role involves designing and maintaining distributed systems that support performance and scalability for real-time analytics and data-driven applications. Candidates should have over 8 years of backend development experience, with strong proficiencies in Go and Python. This full-time position offers the opportunity to work in a dynamic environment at the forefront of technology and innovation.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of backend development experience, focusing on high-performance, data-intensive systems.
• 5+ years of experience deploying and operating applications on cloud platforms such as AWS or Azure.
• Must hold a valid right to work status in the UK.

Responsibilities

• Architect distributed systems by designing and implementing event-driven backends.
• Ensure APIs and data pipelines meet strict SLAs through advanced performance profiling.
• Engineer high-throughput pipelines using Apache Kafka to stream real-time data.

Skills

Proficiency in Go

Proficiency in Python

Event-driven architectures

Real-time streaming

Performance optimization

Containerization (Docker, Kubernetes)

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

Tools

Apache Kafka

Databricks

Job description

Software Engineer, Backend - AI Practice Team

Warrington, Cheshire, United Kingdom and 1 more

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Job Description

ABS is seeking an exceptional Backend Engineer to join us full-time on our Artificial Intelligence (AI) Practice Team. In this role, you will design and scale high-performance backend systems that power real-time analytics and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines. You’ll build distributed services that deliver sub-500ms response times under high load, enabling next-generation AI and data-driven applications.

What You Will Do:

• Architect distributed systems: Design and implement event-driven backends using advanced patterns such as CQRS, Event Sourcing, Saga, and Circuit Breakers. Build at scale: Develop and maintain web services in Go and Python, leveraging cloud-native infrastructure for resiliency and elasticity.
• Optimize for performance: Ensure APIs and data pipelines meet strict SLAs through advanced performance profiling, caching, and query optimization.
• Stream real-time data: Engineer high-throughput pipelines using Apache Kafka and other event streaming platforms.
• Deliver reliability: Establish strong observability, testing, and monitoring practices to guarantee consistency, uptime, and fault tolerance.

What You Will Need:

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
• 8+ years of backend development experience, with a focus on high-performance, data-intensive systems.
• 5+ years deploying and operating applications on AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
• Proven track record building production systems that sustain high concurrency and throughput.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Expert proficiency in Go and Python for backend development.
• Deep experience with event-driven architectures and real-time streaming, particularly Apache Kafka.
• Mastery of distributed system patterns (CQRS, Event Sourcing, Saga, Circuit Breaker, Bulkhead).
• Strong command of performance optimization—caching layers, database tuning, and system-level profiling.
• Hands‑on experience with analytics platforms (e.g., Databricks) for large‑scale data processing and ML workflows.
• Proficiency with containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) and infrastructure as code.
• Familiarity with vector databases, search systems, and advanced retrieval‑optimized data structures.
• Must hold a valid right to work status in the UK.

Reporting Relationships:

This role reports to a project manager and does not initially include direct reports.

About Us

We set out more than 160 years ago to promote the security of life and property at sea and preserve the natural environment. Today, we remain true to our mission and continue to support organizations facing a rapidly evolving seascape of challenging regulations and new technologies. Through it all, we are anchored by a vision and mission that help our clients find clarity in uncertain times.

ABS is a global leader in marine and offshore classification and other innovative safety, quality, and environmental services. We’re at the forefront of supporting the global energy transition at sea, the application of remote and autonomous marine systems, cutting‑edge technical solutions, and many more exciting advancements. Our commitment to safety, reliability, and efficiency is ever‑present, guiding our clients to safer and more efficient operations.

Equal Opportunity

ABS Bureau is committed to the equal employment opportunity of its employees and prohibits discrimination against any employee or qualified applicant based on race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship status or veteran status, or other non‑work‑related characteristics that may be protected under the law of the Federal Government or specific state employment laws.

Notice

ABS and Affiliated Companies (ABS) will not pay a fee to any third‑party agency without a valid ABS Master Service Agreement (MSA) authorized and signed by Human Resources. Any resume, CV, application, or other forms of candidate submission provided to any employee of ABS without a valid MSA on file will be considered property of ABS, and no fee will be paid.

Other

This job description is not intended, and should not be construed, to be an all‑inclusive list of responsibilities, skills, efforts or working conditions associated with the job of the incumbent. It is intended to be an accurate reflection of the principal job elements essential for making a fair decision regarding the pay structure of the job.

Job Info

• Job Identification 3920
• Job Category Operations
• Posting Date 01/15/2026, 11:57 AM
• Job Schedule Full time
• Locations EQE House, The Beacons, Warrington, WA3 6WJ, GB 111 Old Broad Street, London, EC2N 1AP, GB