AI-Powered Research Platform Backend Engineer

School of Computing; Singapore; On-site; SGD 54,000 - 78,000; Full time

Job summary

The National University of Singapore invites applications for the position of Research Assistant (Backend & Platform Engineer) for Horizons Office, School of Computing (SoC).

This role is strongly committed to research excellence in all its dimensions: searching for fundamental results and insights, developing novel computational solutions to a wide range of applications, building large-scale experimental systems and improving the well-being of society.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's in CS, Engineering, or related discipline.
• At least 3 years experience in backend, platform, DevOps, or infrastructure engineering roles.
• Strong experience with Python, PostgreSQL, Linux, Docker, infrastructure as code, and at least one major cloud platform (e.g., AWS, GCP, or Azure).
• Comfortable working across backend systems, databases, and infrastructure.
• Experience with distributed jobs, queues, Redis, and observability.
• Experience developing or operating AI-powered applications or systems.
• Ability to diagnose performance and reliability issues across the stack.
• Experience or strong interest in research, in areas such as AI/ML, PL & SE, or large-scale experimental systems.
• Pragmatic approach suited to a small, early-stage team.

Responsibilities

• Deploy and operate backend services, databases, workers, and AI infrastructure.
• Build and improve data ingestion, processing, and matching workflows.
• Optimize PostgreSQL schemas, queries, migrations, backups, and performance.
• Make agent and ingestion jobs durable, recoverable, and safe across multiple workers.
• Contribute to Python backend services and internal tools where needed.
• Improve monitoring, logging, reliability, and production performance.
• Work with PI and lab members to support research projects, turning experiments into robust backend systems.
• Support research activities such as running experiments, data collection and processing, and documenting systems and results.

Skills

Python

PostgreSQL

Linux

Docker

Infrastructure as Code

Cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure)

Redis

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science/Engineering or related field

Job description

The National University of Singapore invites applications for the position of Research Assistant (Backend & Platform Engineer) for Horizons Office, School of Computing (SoC).

This role is strongly committed to research excellence in all its dimensions: searching for fundamental results and insights, developing novel computational solutions to a wide range of applications, building large-scale experimental systems and improving the well-being of society.