Principal Python Engineer

Intellias; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Intellias is seeking an experienced Platform Architect to design and implement large-scale distributed systems for a healthcare data platform. You will drive Kafka-based architecture, REST/GraphQL API governance, and cloud-native patterns while collaborating with AI teams to integrate LLMs and agents into production.

The role combines hands-on coding with architectural leadership across multiple teams, shaping data interoperability and secure, scalable platform solutions.

Qualifications

• Must have 8+ years of software engineering experience.
• Strong hands-on backend development experience with Python.
• Deep understanding of distributed systems and large-scale platform architectures.
• Experience designing and implementing event-driven architectures using Kafka or similar technologies.
• Strong expertise in REST API and GraphQL architecture.
• Experience designing, building, and operating production-grade systems.
• Strong AWS and cloud-native architecture experience.
• Experience with Kubernetes and containerized environments.
• Strong understanding of data architecture, data modeling, and high-volume systems.
• Hands-on experience with MongoDB, ClickHouse, Databricks, Spark, or similar.
• Knowledge of authentication, authorization, OAuth, OIDC, multi-tenancy, and security best practices.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to influence technical decisions across multiple teams.
• Strong hands-on engineering mindset.
• Professional English communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Design and build large-scale distributed systems and event-driven architectures.
• Define and evolve Kafka-based platform architecture, including topic design, schema governance, reliability patterns, and failure recovery strategies.
• Design and govern REST and federated GraphQL APIs.
• Build reusable platform capabilities that accelerate product development across engineering teams.
• Contribute directly to production code, prototypes, proofs of concept, and reference implementations.
• Collaborate with AI engineering teams to integrate LLM and agent-based solutions into production systems.
• Shape healthcare data architecture, interoperability standards, and large-scale data processing solutions.
• Drive architectural reviews, technical decision-making, and engineering standards.
• Design secure, scalable, and resilient cloud-native solutions.
• Mentor senior engineers and technical leaders across multiple teams.

Skills

Distributed systems

Python Backend

Kafka

REST API

GraphQL

AWS

Kubernetes

Security best practices

Tools

MongoDB

ClickHouse

Databricks

Spark

Job description

About the Project

Join a healthcare technology initiative focused on building a modern, scalable platform for connected health data and digital healthcare experiences.The project is developing a healthcare data platform that integrates information from electronic health records, digital health applications, wearables, patient portals, and other healthcare systems into a unified ecosystem. The platform combines cloud-native architectures, large-scale data processing, healthcare interoperability, API platforms, and AI-enabled capabilities.This is a highly technical, hands-on role within the Platform Architecture team. You will work across multiple engineering teams, solving complex platform-level challenges related to scalability, reliability, interoperability, data consistency, API governance, and production architecture.If you enjoy designing systems and validating architectural decisions through code, this role offers the opportunity to make a significant impact on a large-scale healthcare platform.

Your Responsibilities

• Design and build large-scale distributed systems and event-driven architectures.
• Define and evolve Kafka-based platform architecture, including topic design, schema governance, reliability patterns, and failure recovery strategies.
• Design and govern REST and federated GraphQL APIs.
• Build reusable platform capabilities that accelerate product development across engineering teams.
• Contribute directly to production code, prototypes, proofs of concept, and reference implementations.
• Collaborate with AI engineering teams to integrate LLM and agent-based solutions into production systems.
• Shape healthcare data architecture, interoperability standards, and large-scale data processing solutions.
• Drive architectural reviews, technical decision-making, and engineering standards.
• Design secure, scalable, and resilient cloud-native solutions.
• Mentor senior engineers and technical leaders across multiple teams.

Requirements

• Must Have8+ years of software engineering experience.
• Strong hands-on backend development experience with Python.
• Deep understanding of distributed systems and large-scale platform architectures.
• Experience designing and implementing event-driven architectures using Kafka or similar technologies.
• Strong expertise in REST API and GraphQL architecture.
• Experience designing, building, and operating production-grade systems.
• Strong AWS and cloud-native architecture experience.
• Experience with Kubernetes and containerized environments.
• Strong understanding of data architecture, data modeling, and high-volume systems.
• Hands-on experience with technologies such as MongoDB, ClickHouse, Databricks, Spark, or similar.
• Knowledge of authentication, authorization, OAuth, OIDC, multi-tenancy, and security best practices.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to influence technical decisions across multiple teams.
• Strong hands-on engineering mindset.
• Professional English communication skills.

Nice to Have

• Experience with healthcare platforms, FHIR, HL7, EHR integrations, or healthcare interoperability.
• Experience working with sensitive and regulated data (PHI/PII).
• Knowledge of healthcare compliance and security standards.
• Experience with Java/Spring Boot and/or TypeScript/Node.js.
• Experience with federated GraphQL platforms.
• Experience integrating LLMs or AI agents into production environments.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code, or similar.
• Experience establishing engineering standards and platform patterns used across multiple teams.
• Previous Staff or Principal-level engineering experience.

What We Offer

• Opportunity to shape the core architecture of a modern healthcare technology platform.
• Work on challenging distributed systems and cloud-native engineering problems at scale.
• Influence architecture and engineering standards across multiple teams.
• Collaborate with product, security, data, AI, and engineering stakeholders.
• Combine architectural leadership with hands-on software development.
• Work with modern technologies spanning data platforms, cloud infrastructure, APIs, and AI solutions.
• Flexible and collaborative international environment.

Why Join Us?

This role is ideal for an experienced engineer who wants to operate at the intersection of architecture and implementation. You will help define the technical foundations of a next-generation healthcare platform while remaining close to production systems, engineering challenges, and real business impact.