Lead Backend Engineer - Agentic AI

Acunor Inc; Hartford (CT); On-site; USD 179,000 - 248,000; Full time

Job summary

Acunor Inc in Hartford, CT is seeking a Lead Backend Engineer to design and build production systems that fuse strong software fundamentals with hands-on AI/ML tooling, including Agentic AI workflows and MCP servers. You will drive technical direction and mentor other engineers.

This onsite, contract role requires expert Python production skills, solid SQL data modeling, and cloud experience with Google Cloud Platform (AWS OK).

Qualifications

• Proficient in Python with production-grade coding.
• Relational SQL design, data modeling, and query optimization.
• Hands-on experience with Google Cloud Platform; AWS acceptable.
• 7–10 years of professional software engineering experience.

Responsibilities

• Own technical direction for a workstream or service area.
• Drive modular, horizontally scalable design decisions across the team.
• Lead design reviews, establish technical standards, and mentor engineers.
• Drive adoption of Agentic AI / MCP patterns across the team.
• Partner with product and architecture on technical tradeoffs.

Skills

Python production-grade

SQL / Relational databases

Cloud platforms (GCP/AWS)

Architecture leadership

Mentoring engineers

Job description

Lead Backend Engineer Agentic AI

Location: Hartford, CT 3 Days Onsite
Employment Type: Contract
Experience: 7 10 Years

About the Role

We are looking for a Lead Backend Engineer who can design and build production systems that combine strong software engineering fundamentals with hands-on exposure to modern AI/ML tooling - specificallyAgentic AI workflows and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers.

You do not need to come from a pure AI/ML background. What matters is strong core engineering skills, sound architectural judgment, and the ability to integrate AI agents into real-world production systems.

This role requires an engineer who can not only apply strong architectural principles but also drive technical direction, lead design decisions, and mentor other engineers.

Must-Have Skills

• Python - strong, production-grade proficiency; primary programming language.
• Databases - solid relational/SQL fundamentals, including schema design, query optimization, and data modeling.
• Cloud platform - strong hands-on experience with
  Google Cloud Platform (GCP) preferred; AWS is an acceptable alternative.
• 6+ years of professional software engineering experience.

Design & Architecture

• Strong grounding in modular design - clear separation of concerns, well-bounded components/services, and low coupling/high cohesion.
• Ability to design systems that scale horizontally - statelessness where appropriate, partitioning/sharding strategy, load distribution, and avoiding single points of contention.
• Working fluency in core design patterns and principles, including SOLID, domain-driven boundaries, event-driven/async patterns, idempotency, caching strategies, and API versioning.
• Comfortable reasoning about tradeoffs: consistency vs. availability, latency vs. throughput, build vs. buy, and synchronous vs. asynchronous workflows.
• Set direction in design reviews, push back on designs that will not scale, and mentor others toward strong architectural thinking.

Lead Responsibilities

• Own technical direction for a workstream or service area.
• Drive modular, horizontally scalable design decisions across the team - not just follow them.
• Lead design reviews, establish technical standards, and mentor engineers on architectural thinking.
• Drive adoption of
  Agentic AI / MCP patterns across the team.
• Partner with product and architecture stakeholders on technical tradeoffs.