Senior Backend Engineer - System Services

Context Labs; Amsterdam; On-site; EUR 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Context Labs, based in Amsterdam, is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to lead the development of the Immutably Platform and analytics services. You will guide architecture, build scalable APIs, and mentor engineers across distributed teams while shaping strategic product linkages.

The role emphasizes strong Java expertise, security, and end-to-end system ownership, with a collaborative agile environment and opportunities to influence across the company.

Qualifications

• Experience with distributed ledger systems and consensus algorithms.
• End-to-end understanding of modern application architectures and patterns.
• Translate business requirements into technical designs, estimates, and tasks with Product.
• Establish engineering best practices through code, architecture, and reviews.
• Collaborate in an Agile environment to deliver high-quality software.
• Mentor engineers and coordinate across time zones.

Responsibilities

• Lead the services engineering team as a hands-on technical authority, providing architectural guidance.
• Design, develop, and maintain APIs and platform services for the Immutably Platform.
• Translate business requirements into technical designs, estimates, and development tasks with Product.
• Establish engineering best practices through exemplary code, architecture, and reviews.
• Collaborate within an Agile environment to deliver high-quality software.
• Mentor and coach engineers, helping resolve technical challenges.
• Coordinate development across distributed teams and multiple time zones.

Skills

Distributed systems

Java (Spring)

APIs & microservices

Cryptography & security

Kubernetes

Docker

SQL/NoSQL databases

Leadership & mentoring

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Tools

Quarkus

Helidon

Kafka

CouchDB

CockroachDB

FoundationDB

Job description

Senior Backend Engineer – System Services

Amsterdam, NL

About this position:

Context Labs is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to help drive forward our product initiatives with our Immutably™ Platform and analytics spaces. Working as a leader within the development team, the engineer will lead many aspects of developing our system services, APIs, and related product capabilities; as well as provide thought leadership, upskilling of less senior engineers, and taking part in defining strategic linkages across the company’s products.

In this role you will:

• Lead the services engineering team as a hands‑on technical authority, providing architectural and development guidance.
• Design, develop, and maintain APIs and platform services for the Immutably™ Platform, ensuring scalable, performant, and maintainable solutions.
• Translate business requirements into technical designs, estimates, and development tasks in partnership with Product and Engineering.
• Establish engineering best practices through exemplary code, architecture, documentation, and code reviews.
• Collaborate within an Agile development environment to deliver high-quality software.
• Mentor and coach engineers, helping resolve technical and methodological challenges.
• Coordinate development efforts across distributed teams and multiple time zones.
• Anything else as may reasonably be required by the company.

Experience & Skills:

• Strong full-stack development experience with an end-to-end understanding of modern application architectures.
• Expertise in distributed, peer-to-peer, and distributed ledger systems, including consensus algorithms and smart contracts.
• Experience with distributed protocols and patterns such as RAFT, BFT, Gossip, DHT, CRDT, Event Sourcing, CEP, and CQRS.
• Strong knowledge of cryptography and application security, including hashing, digital signatures, encryption, and data integrity/confidentiality practices.
• Proficiency with Java frameworks such as Spring, Quarkus, and Helidon.
• Experience with Docker-based microservices and Kubernetes.
• Strong database experience across relational, NoSQL, and NewSQL technologies, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, Apache CouchDB, CockroachDB, FoundationDB, and Kafka.
• Proficiency in unit/functional testing and source code management.
• Strong problem-solving, communication, and attention to detail, with the ability to balance architectural strategy with hands‑on execution.
• Proficiency in source code management

Preferred Experience:

• Experience with functional programming.
• Experience with logic programming.
• Experience with languages other than Java (Rust, Go, Erlang, Zig, C++ etc.).
• Experience doing development on technologies such as: Streambase, Voldemort, Accumulo, Aerospike, VoltDB and or Kafka.
• A bachelor’s degree in computer science or related field.

Why you’ll like it here:

• Context Labs is collaborative at its core. You’ll work within your team and across the organization allowing for continuous learning and discovery.
• We set goals that matter and provide value in all that we do, from building meaningful products to positively impacting carbon reduction and climate change.
• Context Labs’ mission is to transform complex data into continuously proven information. Powered by Immutably™, an innovative, trusted data fabric platform, our integrated solutions deliver context‑driven insights that enable human networks to spot patterns, correlate trends - and reveal the ground truth hidden inside the world’s most complicated, persistent problems.

We understand that applying for a job can be intimidating. Applicants rarely meet every single job requirement, and we know there are many skills and backgrounds that will contribute to success in this role.

Context Labs embraces diversity and equal opportunity. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We believe the more inclusive we are, the better our products will be. Context Labs will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, perform essential job functions, and receive other benefits and privileges of employment. If you require accommodation, please contact Human Resources at [e-mail].

Who we are:

Context Labs builds industrial AI data infrastructure for global markets, giving energy and industrial companies trusted data and AI outputs they can defend. Its platform turns fragmented operational and emissions data into continuously proven information, while sensitive data stays within each company’s own environment. Because the data is verified and the workflows validated, one platform can support any output, from carbon management and compliance to commercial use. The company grew out of research at MIT and is led by a team that helped build the internet at scale through earlier companies. Context Labs has offices in Amsterdam, Cambridge, Mass., and Houston, TX. Learn more at www.contextlabs.com.