Senior Backend Developer

Expert.ai is the premier artificial intelligence platform for language understanding. Its unique hybrid approach to NL combines symbolic human-like comprehension and machine learning to transform language-intensive processes into practical knowledge, providing the insight required to improve decision making throughout organizations.

Our mission is simple: we want to create technology that transforms language into knowledge and insight

Our vision is to make anyone an expert with simple, powerful AI tools that capture the value of natural language.

With your help, Expert.ai will continue to create experts all over the world. Join us to make a difference

We are looking for an open minded, highly motivated person to reinforce our Flagship Platform team with a permanent contract.

In this role you will be responsible for designing and building scalable backend systems that power our AI platform and be part of a dynamic and growing Expert.ai team. You will work at the intersection of backend engineering and AI technology together with product owners, engineers, and researchers, you will help architect robust APIs, microservices, and infrastructure that enable innovative AI-driven solutions.

This is an excellent opportunity to increase your knowledge and gain experience in building enterprise-grade, cloud-native systems. You will also use your technical expertise to optimize system performance, ensure scalability, and implement best practices across our platform architecture. This role at Expert.ai is a great opportunity to influence technical decisions, improve our platform's reliability and performance, and drive innovation.

The HeadQuarters are based in Modena; work from home flexibility can be evaluated according to the job position and to the candidate experience.

What you will do: As a Senior Backend Engineer on our Platform team, you will:

• Design and implement scalable backend APIs with RESTful and GraphQL services
• Build and maintain microservices architectures with proper observability and monitoring
• Implement robust security practices including authentication, authorization, and data protection
• Perform comprehensive testing including unit, integration, and performance validation
• Work collaboratively with Tech Leads, Project Managers, Software Engineers, and cross-functional teams on customer projects
• Participate in code reviews and maintain high code quality standards

Who you are:

Education & Experience:

• Minimum 6+ years of hands-on experience in designing, building, testing, and maintaining large-scale, cloud-native, high-throughput systems
• Expert-level experience in enterprise environments with proven track record in complex solution design

Core Programming Skills:

• Expert proficiency in Java, Python, JavaScript
• Strong understanding of object-oriented and functional programming paradigms
• Experience with asynchronous programming and concurrent systems

Technical Expertise:

Web Technologies & APIs:

• Advanced API design (REST, GraphQL, OpenAPI/Swagger)
• API versioning, rate limiting, and gateway management
• Frontend technologies: HTML5, CSS3, modern JavaScript frameworks

Databases & Data Management:

• SQL databases: PostgreSQL, MySQL
• NoSQL databases: MongoDB, Redis, Elasticsearch
• Vector databases and data lakes (MinIO, S3)
• Database performance optimization and query tuning
• Cloud-managed database services (RDS, Aurora, Cloud SQL, Cosmos DB)

Cloud-Native Technologies:

• Containerization: Docker, Kubernetes, Helm
• Container orchestration on cloud platforms (EKS, AKS)
• Microservices architecture and service mesh
• Message brokers: RabbitMQ, AWS SQS/SNS, Azure Service Bus
• Serverless computing and Function-as-a-Service platforms
• Cloud-native storage solutions and object storage

Development & DevOps:

• Version control: Git, GitLab/GitHub Actions, CI/CD pipelines
• Build tools: Maven, Gradle
• Application frameworks: Spring Boot, Micronaut
• Web servers: Tomcat, Jetty, Apache HTTP Server, Nginx
• Cloud deployment automation and orchestration

Security & Compliance:

• Authentication and authorization (OAuth 2.0, JWT, SAML)
• API security best practices and threat modeling
• Data encryption, secure coding practices
• GDPR, SOC 2, and industry compliance requirements
• Cloud security best practices and compliance frameworks

Observability & Performance:

• Monitoring and alerting (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack)
• Cloud-native monitoring tools (CloudWatch, Azure Monitor)
• Distributed tracing and performance profiling
• Load balancing and auto-scaling strategies
• System reliability and incident response

System Architecture:

• Distributed systems design and event-driven architectures
• Streaming systems and real-time data processing
• Configuration management and service discovery
• Multi-tenancy and scalability patterns
• Cloud migration strategies and modernization approaches

Soft Skills & Collaboration:

• Excellent communication skills in English (oral and written)
• Ability to mentor junior developers and conduct technical interviews
• Experience working with globally distributed, remote-first teams
• Customer-facing experience with enterprise IT departments
• Strong problem-solving and debugging capabilities

Operating Systems:

• Proficiency in both Linux and Windows environments
• Command-line expertise and scripting capabilities

Cloud Platforms & Services:

• Extensive experience with major cloud providers: AWS, Azure
• Cloud-native architecture design and implementation
• Cloud services: EC2, Lambda, S3, RDS, DynamoDB, CloudWatch (AWS)
• Azure App Services, Azure Functions, Azure Storage, Cosmos DB (Azure)
• Cloud security: IAM, security groups, network policies, secrets management
• Multi-cloud and hybrid cloud architectures

Preferred Additional Skills:

• Advanced cloud certifications (AWS Solutions Architect, Azure Administrator,)
• Advanced database systems: graph databases
• Cloud disaster recovery and business continuity planning

What We Value:

• Passion for software engineering best practices including test-driven development
• Experience with continuous integration, continuous delivery, and automated deployment
• Ability to thrive in rapidly evolving, innovative environments
• Commitment to code quality, documentation, and knowledge sharing
• Proactive approach to learning emerging technologies and industry trends

We offer you:

• Variety of exciting challenges with ample opportunities for development and training in a truly global landscape
• Culture and values that focus on teamwork, innovation and passion for artificial intelligence and language

• Flexible working arrangements and attention to work life balance
• Equal opportunity employment experience that values difference and diversity

• Customized induction & Onboarding training that will facilitate the initiation process and accelerate your integration into our daily business activities.

• Performance appraisal process that will bring annual assessment of competencies, targets achievement and areas of improvement
• Welfare platform where you can buy services and goods