Senior Backend Engineer (Python)

EV Energy; United States; Remote; USD 139,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

25 days PTO

Healthcare options (Cigna & Guardian)

Life and disability insurance

WeWork access

Annual Team Week

L&D allowance

Job summary

EV Energy is hiring a backend software engineer to build scalable systems for the world’s largest EV-centric virtual power plant. You’ll work primarily in Python with Django, contributing to AI-powered features and infrastructure.

The role emphasizes ownership, fast delivery, and high-quality engineering. You’ll collaborate with product, design, and commercial teams to translate customer problems into robust technical solutions, while using AI as a core part of daily development.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of Python backend experience.
• Experience building production backend systems with Python frameworks (Django, FastAPI or Flask).
• Proven track record of shipping AI-powered features and using AI coding tools daily.
• Strong API, data modeling, databases, and production reliability fundamentals.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and own backend services and APIs powering the product.
• Make architectural decisions balancing speed, maintainability, and scale.
• Take ownership of significant technical areas and ship in production.

Skills

Python

Backend engineering

AI integration

API design

System design

Communication

Bias for action

Tools

Django

FastAPI

Flask

Claude API

Job description

We are building the world's largest EV-centric virtual power plant (VPP). By connecting to vehicles, chargers, batteries, solar, and other distributed energy resources, we turn households into flexible grid assets that balance supply and demand, preventing blackouts and reducing reliance on fossil fuels.

We are scaling rapidly across North America and Europe. We are moving fast, we are AI‑first, and we are looking for builders who want to power the grid of the future.

About the role

Our core platform is built in Python and Django, so we're looking for experienced backend software engineers with strong Python skills; Django experience would be beneficial but we’re open to other frameworks.

You'll be the person who takes a product idea and builds the systems, services, and infrastructure that make it real — reliable, scalable, and fast to iterate on. We're not looking for generalists who dabble across the stack — we're looking for someone with deep backend craft who can move fast, build with AI as a core part of how they work, and take genuine ownership of what they ship.

What you’ll do

Backend engineering and architecture

• Design, build, and own backend services and APIs that power our product — from data models to infrastructure to production reliability
• Make sound architectural decisions that balance shipping speed against long‑term maintainability and scale
• Take ownership of significant technical areas — from identifying the right approach to shipping and iterating in production

Building and shipping with AI

• Use AI coding tools (Claude, Cursor, or equivalent) as a core, daily part of how you write and ship code — not an occasional add‑on
• Build working backend prototypes fast — good enough to validate with real usage, not over‑engineered before it's proven
• Know when a rough implementation is right for the moment and when production‑grade engineering is needed — and apply that judgment confidently
• Ship, measure, learn, iterate — kill what isn't working, double down on what is

Product and stakeholder collaboration

• Work closely with product, design, and commercial stakeholders to translate customer problems into technical solutions
• Act as a credible engineering voice in cross‑functional discussions, pilot programmes, and technical scoping conversations
• Partner with Customer Support, Program Management, and Demand Generation to understand how customers find, adopt, and stay with ev.energy

Raising the bar

• Share what you learn openly, challenge how things are built, and raise the technical bar for the engineers around you
• Model what AI‑native backend engineering looks like in practice — not in theory
• Contribute to a culture of experimentation, velocity, and commercial impact
• Python and Django for our core platform
• Django REST Framework for our APIs
• React, React Native and TypeScript for our web and mobile app
• PostgreSQL, Redis and DynamoDB for data storage
• AWS for hosting, with infrastructure managed as code using Terraform
• Claude (via the Anthropic API) features to power AI

What we’re looking for

Must‑haves

• Strong Python experience (5+ years), with a clear track record of building and shipping production backend systems
• Experience building backend services with a Python framework (e.g Django, FastAPI or Flask)
• Strong experience building with AI — you've taken AI‑powered features or products from concept through to production, and use AI coding tools (Claude, Cursor, or equivalent) as a genuine daily practice, not just occasionally
• Solid understanding of backend fundamentals — APIs, data modelling, databases, system design, and production reliability
• Experience leading technical decisions and influencing direction without relying on hierarchy
• Strong communication skills — written, verbal, and technical — credible with engineers, product, and commercial stakeholders
• High bias for action and comfort with ambiguity — you make good technical decisions with incomplete information

Nice to haves

• Experience in energy, utilities, cleantech, or adjacent domains
• Experience with Django
• Familiarity with EV fleet operations, home energy management, or grid services
• Front‑end or full‑stack capability that lets you prototype independently without blocking on others
• A portfolio of backend systems, tools, or products that prove how you work
• Direct customer conversation experience that's shaped what you've built

Salary, benefits & how we work

The salary range for this role is $138,900-$170,200 USD.

Key benefits include:

• Equity - you'll own a part of the business through our share options program
• 25 days of PTO, rising by one day per year, up to 30 days
• Healthcare options - to help keep you and your family in tip‑top condition (provided by Cigna & Guardian)
• Life and disability insurance
• Co‑working access via WeWork (if you’d like it)
• Annual 'Team Week' whole company offsite
• L&D allowance of $1,300 per year - everyone is learning, developing and challenging themselves so we have a professional development fund per year for you to learn new skills

You can find out more about our full range of perks and benefits here.

Location & how we work

This role is fully remote in the US, but we're specifically looking for someone based in EST.

The majority of people at ev.energy work on a fully remote basis, with a small number of roles based on‑site in our testing sites.

This means that most of our people work from home, but we're happy to provide co‑working subscriptions if you'd like to spend time at a WeWork (or other co‑working space close to you).

We balance our remote set up by getting everyone together once a year for an offsite, as we know that spending time together IRL is super important.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity: we do not discriminate based on race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability status. If you'd like a copy of our DE&I policy you can reach us at [e-mail]. We'll always do our best to accommodate reasonable adjustments to the interview process if needed - just let us know.