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Code Metal is building an automated software engineering platform that uses formal methods to verify AI-generated code for correctness and auditability. The company serves defense and aerospace customers including the U.S. Air Force, L3Harris, RTX, and Toshiba, helping them modernize legacy code, optimize performance, and move prototypes to production.
The Modeling & Simulation team is developing a next-generation wargaming and decision-support platform to help the Department of War make multi-billion-dollar force-design decisions. This platform integrates simulation and physics, backend and data systems, frontend and geospatial visualization, and AI systems.
In this role, you will lead the backend and data engineering team building the Python services, APIs, and data systems powering the wargaming platform. You'll balance people leadership with hands-on technical ownership, bringing Principal-level backend engineering judgment to architecture and code while growing a team of backend and data engineers.
Key responsibilities include:
- Leading and growing a high-performing backend and data engineering team while remaining hands-on in the codebase
- Defining technical direction for backend services, APIs, data systems, and integrations across simulation, AI, frontend, and platform teams
- Designing, building, and operating secure, reliable Python services, APIs, workers, and integration layers
- Translating product, research, and domain requirements into clear architectures and incrementally deliverable work
- Establishing strong engineering standards for API design, service boundaries, testing, observability, error handling, migrations, security, and code review
- Building enterprise-grade software for cloud, private-cloud, customer-managed, on-premises, and disconnected environments
- Partnering with platform and data engineering leaders on deployability, observability, performance, and maintainability
- Leading design reviews, RFCs, technical grooming, and pragmatic decisions balancing speed, correctness, reliability, and maintainability
- Debugging and resolving complex issues spanning services, databases, queues, APIs, infrastructure, and third-party integrations
- Reviewing code, mentoring engineers, and validating AI-assisted code in high-assurance environments
- Collaborating with Product, Engineering, and government stakeholders
- Recruiting, developing, and scaling the backend and data engineering organization
REQUIREMENTS:
- 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 technical leadership including architecture guidance, code review, mentoring, 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, with strong SQL and data-modeling fundamentals
- Experience with ORMs and database migration frameworks such as SQLAlchemy, Alembic, or Django ORM
- Experience delivering secure, reliable, observable software in production environments
- Familiarity with cloud deployment patterns in AWS, Azure, GCP, or similar platforms
- Experience supporting software deployed beyond standard SaaS environments (private cloud, on-premises, customer-managed, appliance-style, or disconnected deployments)
- Ability to make practical decisions around data consistency, reliability, observability, and operational support
- Strong cross-functional communication skills and ability to turn ambiguous requirements into clear plans and working software
STRONGLY PREFERRED:
- Experience leading backend or data engineering teams on simulation, analytics, or decision-support platforms
- Familiarity with agentic AI frameworks, machine learning tooling, or ML pipeline integration
- Experience with cloud-based distributed systems and Docker/containerized development
- Experience designing rule-driven systems, policy engines, or configuration-driven business logic
- Experience managing managers or growing engineers into technical-lead roles
- Active U.S. security clearance (Secret, Top Secret, or SCI/SAP)
- Experience with observability practices and tooling
- Experience with authentication, authorization, RBAC, audit logging, and secure service-to-service communication
- Experience designing systems that integrate with external services, legacy systems, third-party APIs, simulators, data pipelines, or customer-owned infrastructure
- Experience with geospatial systems, simulation systems, planning systems, logistics systems, or other complex operational domains
- Experience helping teams establish engineering practices without adding unnecessary process
