Senior Software Engineer (Backend & Infrastructure)

Forager; Poland; On-site; PLN 180,000 - 320,000; Full time

Job summary

Forager is seeking a senior backend-focused engineer to own the core platform, APIs, data pipelines, and DevOps for a data-intensive product. You will influence product direction and ensure high coverage, latency, and uptime while contributing to a customer-facing React/TypeScript app.

You will design scalable services, operate the Elasticsearch/ECK stack end-to-end, manage AWS infrastructure, and implement robust data quality tooling. This is a high-ownership role on a small team.

Qualifications

• 5+ years building and operating production backend systems and APIs
• Hands-on experience with Elasticsearch/OpenSearch at scale and with PostgreSQL
• Strong Python/Django REST Framework skills and familiarity with Redis and async task systems

Responsibilities

• Own backend & API development including real-time enrichment APIs and data pipelines
• Design and operate Elasticsearch/ECK stack end-to-end and related ETL/workflow components
• Lead DevOps and infrastructure ownership (AWS, CI/CD, observability)

Skills

Python

Django REST Framework

Elasticsearch/OpenSearch

PostgreSQL

Redis

AWS

CI/CD

React/TypeScript

Tools

Celery

RabbitMQ

GitHub Actions

OpenSearch

Sentry

Job description

The Role

You'll own the backend, data, and infrastructure that deliver Forager's data to platform customers at scale - from ingestion all the way through to the APIs and feeds customers integrate against. This is a backend-first role: most of your time is spent building API features, operating our search and ETL data infrastructure, and owning the DevOps and platform layer underneath it. You'll also contribute to our customer-facing React/TypeScript web app, but that's the minority of the work. This is a senior, high-ownership role on a small team. You won't just contribute features - you'll be responsible for the design, reliability, and evolution of the platform itself. You'll have direct input into product direction and the freedom (and responsibility) to ship work that materially moves our coverage, accuracy, latency, and uptime metrics.

What You'll Own

• Backend & API development - real-time enrichment APIs (person/org lookup, contact data, reverse search), search and filter endpoints, waterfall enrichment logic, and the credit/billing surfaces customers meter against. Match rate, latency, and freshness directly drive customer value.
• Data engineering, ETL & search infrastructure - own the Elasticsearch/ECK stack end-to-end (index and mapping design, ingestion pipelines, relevance tuning, cluster health, scaling, migrations), plus the ETL applications that move billions of data points daily into searchable stores, Snowflake data products, and warehouse exports while holding fill rates and accuracy.
• DevOps & platform (core owner) - you own day-to-day AWS infrastructure, infrastructure-as-code, CI/CD, and observability. This is not shared-on-the-side ops: you're responsible for infrastructure modernization, deployment pipelines, security scanning, log/metric consolidation, and the reliability of the systems you build.
• Observability & data‑quality tooling - build Grafana dashboards, load tests, and data-accuracy evals that make coverage, freshness, latency, and correctness measurable and continuously monitored across the data‑quality surface.
• Customer-facing web app (minority) - contribute to the React/TypeScript app, docs, onboarding, and self‑serve surfaces when the work calls for it.

Core Responsibilities

• Backend & API Development Design, build, and operate RESTful APIs for enrichment, search, feeds, and platform-customer workflows. Develop scalable backend services - workers, task queues, waterfall lookups, data pipelines - that keep refresh cycles predictable and fill rates high. Build the metering, credit-logging, and billing logic that customers rely on for accurate consumption. Participate actively in product planning; help shape which features have the highest customer impact.
• Data Engineering, Search & ETL Own the Elasticsearch / ECK search stack end‑to‑end: index design, ingestion, relevance, cluster health, scaling, and migrations. Design and operate ETL applications moving data into searchable stores, bulk feeds, and warehouses ( Snowflake , S3). Optimize PostgreSQL - query performance, indexing, cache utilization. Drive measurable improvements in latency, uptime, error rate, fill rate, and scalability.
• DevOps & Infrastructure (Core Owner) Own AWS infrastructure (ECS, S3, etc.) and infrastructure-as-code. Own CI/CD pipelines. Own observability - Grafana, CloudWatch, Sentry - and on‑call response for the surfaces you build. Drive infrastructure modernization and share crawler infrastructure maintenance with the team.
• Collaboration & Quality Code review with high standards for readability, security, and performance. Write unit, integration, and E2E tests - test reliability is a quality contributor, not overhead. Document features, architecture, and API contracts; great developer docs are how our customers succeed.

What We’re Looking For

• Required Experience 5+ years building and operating production backend systems and APIs, with clear examples of strategic technical problem‑solving (not just tenure). Strong proficiency in Python / Django REST Framework . Hands‑on experience operating Elasticsearch / OpenSearch at scale - index/mapping design, query and relevance tuning, cluster management, migrations. Demonstrated track record building and operating ETL pipelines that move significant data volumes reliably. Production experience with PostgreSQL , Redis , and async task systems ( Celery / RabbitMQ or equivalent). Core‑owner-level comfort with AWS (ECS, S3, CloudWatch), infrastructure‑as‑code , and CI/CD (GitHub Actions or equivalent) - you're comfortable owning the platform, not just deploying to it. Experience operating services in production - observability, on‑call, incident response. Working proficiency in React / TypeScript - comfortable shipping product UI when the work calls for it. (This is the minority of the role, not its center.) Strong written communication; comfortable owning documentation as a deliverable.
• AI & Agentic Workflows (Required) This is non‑n