Backend Engineer

TL;DR: We're looking for exceptional builders who help us design and ship the foundational infrastructure that lets Conduct scale to the world's largest enterprises, while accelerating the product teams building on top of it. WHY CONDUCT The world's largest companies are slowed down by the software they run on. We’re building the AI operating system that absorbs IT complexity and unlocks entirely new levels of speed, output, and ambition. We believe this is a generation-defining mission. Major enterprises already trust us with their most critical systems, we just closed a $60M Series A from top-tier funds, and we're still early enough that what you build here defines the company. We're a small, talent-dense team doing our life's work at Conduct - we value extreme ownership, high velocity, and low-ego collaboration. If you bring that same drive, we will make sure this is the place you do yours too.   WHO WE HIRE We're looking for pragmatic, high-agency engineers who thrive in ambiguity and care as much about the system as the feature. Fundamentals matter more to us than familiarity with any specific tool. If you're strong, you'll pick it up fast. You'll stand out if you: * Have 3+ years of backend experience with exposure to platform or infrastructure work. You have seen what it actually takes to go from MVP to scalable, production-grade systems * Have strong system design instincts and own problems end-to-end across APIs, infrastructure, and data flows * Are experienced with distributed systems, scaling databases (postgres), queueing, and large-scale batch processing * Understand how to benchmark and tune systems under real load, and know how to make pragmatic trade-offs when the data is ambiguous * Are familiar with LLM infrastructure at scale * Raise the bar around you — through code, mentorship, and better systems — and fix problems without waiting for permission   WHAT YOU’LL OWN You'll have broad ownership across architecture, developer experience and production systems. The infrastructure problems are real and genuinely hard: we process tens of millions of lines of code per customer, generating large-scale LLM workloads under enterprise-grade reliability requirements. You'll work on the systems that keep product teams fast and unblocked and that hold up as we onboard some of the largest companies in the world. In practice that means: * Accelerating product teams. You build the platform that lets engineers focus on product, not plumbing: shared abstractions, sensible defaults, internal tooling that compounds. * Scaling with confidence. You design and maintain infrastructure that meets stringent enterprise reliability requirements and doesn't become fragile as we grow. * Taming LLM infrastructure. High token throughput, real-time usage, flaky providers — you make it reliable. * Raising the floor, not just the ceiling. From auth to observability to job orchestration, you build systems that are well-designed from the start and don't need to be rebuilt later.   OUR STACK Our stack prioritises what matters: shipping to customers—fast—without compromising on quality and engineering. Fundamentals are more important to us than familiarity with any technology or tool: if you're strong, we’re sure you'll pick it up fast. Here’s our setup: * React, Vite, TanStack frontend * Kotlin backend: Modern and expressive, paired with the maturity, tooling, and depth of the Java ecosystem. Lets us ship fast now without painting ourselves into a corner later. * Temporal and PortKey: Absorbs infrastructure complexity around durable execution and enterprise-compliant LLM routing, so we can focus on shipping instead. * Specialised LLM Harness: Built from hard-earned experience to give agents maximum freedom and intelligence without compromising on enterprise control, governance, or reliability.

Here at The Exploration Company, we are developing, producing, and operating Nyx, a modular and reusable space orbital vehicle that can eventually be refuelled in orbit and that can carry cargo - and potentially humans in the longer run. Join us as a Backend Engineer, where you will contribute to developing a robust and scalable internal platform. You will primarily work on our data management platform for our engineering teams. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES In your capacity as a Backend Engineer – Data Management Platform you will: * Maintain and evolve a production FastAPI backend serving REST APIs for authentication, authorization, file processing, search, and AI-assisted workflows * Contribute to our real-time collaborative editing service built on Hocuspocus, Y.js, and Node.js * Design and ship database migrations using SQLAlchemy and Alembic against production MySQL databases * Build and improve AI-assisted features using LangChain and our document embedding pipelines * Ensure reliability through automated testing with pytest and operational validation * Collaborate with frontend engineers and operations teams to understand and meet their needs WHAT WE WOULD LOVE TO SEE FROM YOU The ideal candidate will have: * Proficiency in Python and experience building REST APIs with FastAPI or a comparable framework * Familiarity with relational databases (MySQL or PostgreSQL) and ORMs such as SQLAlchemy * Familiarity with caching and pub/sub systems (Redis) * Comfort reading and writing Node.js/JavaScript for backend services * Experience with AWS services (S3, IAM) and containerised deployments with Docker * Experience with version control systems such as Git * Familiarity with automated testing frameworks (pytest or equivalent) * Understanding of software design patterns and engineering best practices * Experience working in agile software development environments * Strong analytical thinking and attention to detail with the ability to balance quality and delivery speed * Motivation to thrive in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment * Strong communication skills: able to express ideas clearly, precisely, and proactively BONUS QUALIFICATIONS * Experience with real-time collaboration protocols (WebSockets, CRDTs, Y.js, Hocuspocus) * Familiarity with search platforms such as OpenSearch or Elasticsearch * Experience with authorization frameworks (Cerbos, OPA, or similar) * Exposure to LangChain or other LLM orchestration libraries * Familiarity with observability tooling (Prometheus, Sentry) * Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and GitHub Actions * Experience in the space industry or other safety-critical domains Why you should join us! What makes us special here at The Exploration Company and why we think you will enjoy working here is:   * We’re Agile - we make decisions fast whilst keeping our goals and systems in mind  * We’re Open and Collaborative - we are transparent about risks and obstacles, so that we can cooperate to overcome them   * We have a lot of Fun - we refuel our energy knowing we are democratising space. It’s a wonderful and rare opportunity, are YOU up for the challenge?   We'd love to hear from you if you wish to be a part of our journey. Please submit your CV now for immediate consideration and we will be in touch shortly.    The Exploration Company is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability status. Relocation assistance is provided for those willing to relocate including visa sponsorship where applicable.   All offers are contingent upon the successful completion of a background check, which will be subject to the country, role, and project you applied for. By submitting your application, you acknowledge and agree that any offer of employment may be conditional upon successful condition of this check. The Exploration Company partners with Zinc Work Limited located in the UK (Zinc), a third-party provider, to ensure this process as efficient and transparent as possible. If applicable, you will receive an email from Zinc upon acceptance of your offer with a link to a secure portal where you can provide the required information to Zinc.