Lead Backend Engineer - Data & Services, Remote/Hybrid

Code Metal, Inc.; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health care plan

401k with 5% matching

Paid Time Off

Flexible hybrid or remote work

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Code Metal, Inc. is seeking a senior Backend/Data Engineering leader to guide the Python services, APIs, and data infrastructure powering our wargaming and decision-support platform.

You will balance hands-on coding with strategic architectural decisions and grow a team of backend and data engineers. You will define technical direction across simulation, AI, frontend, and platform teams, ensure secure, observable, and scalable systems, and mentor engineers to maintain high-quality, maintainable

Qualifications

• Significant experience building and operating production backend systems for enterprise software.
• Strong Python programming skills and experience designing services, APIs, background workers, and integration layers.
• Proven leadership including architecture guidance, code review, and delivery ownership for a small team.
• Strong understanding of service architecture, domain modeling, API contracts, system boundaries, and failure modes.
• Experience with relational databases—preferably PostgreSQL—and SQL/data modeling fundamentals.
• Experience with ORM and migration frameworks (SQLAlchemy, Alembic, Django ORM).
• Experience delivering secure, observable software in production.
• Familiarity with cloud deployment patterns (AWS, GCP, Azure).
• Experience with secure service-to-service communication and authentication/authorization.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a backend and data engineering team while remaining hands-on in the codebase.
• Define the technical direction for backend services, APIs, data systems, and integrations across teams.
• Design, build, and operate secure, reliable Python services and integration layers.
• Translate requirements into architectures, plans, and deliverable work.
• Establish engineering standards for API design, testing, observability, and security.
• Build software for cloud, private-cloud, on-premises, and disconnected deployments.
• Collaborate with platform and data leaders to ensure deployable, observable systems.
• Mentor engineers and uphold high-quality standards in code reviews and design reviews.

Skills

Python

Backend engineering

API design

Data engineering

SQL / PostgreSQL

Cloud platforms

Docker

Security clearance

Mentoring / leadership

Observability

Tools

PostgreSQL

SQLAlchemy/Alembic

AWS / GCP / Azure

Docker

Job description

Code Metal, Inc. is seeking a senior Backend/Data Engineering leader to guide the Python services, APIs, and data infrastructure powering our wargaming and decision-support platform.

You will balance hands-on coding with strategic architectural decisions and grow a team of backend and data engineers. You will define technical direction across simulation, AI, frontend, and platform teams, ensure secure, observable, and scalable systems, and mentor engineers to maintain high-quality, maintainable