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Kpler is a global analytics and intelligence platform founded in 2014, serving the commodities, energy, and maritime sectors. The company employs over 850 experts across 69 countries and transforms complex trade data into actionable insights for shipping and commodity markets.
As a Senior Backend Engineer in the Maritime domain, you will lead the design and scaling of backend services and streaming infrastructure that processes high-volume vessel tracking, port intelligence, and maritime trade flows. You will work with a modern tech stack including Python, PHP, Kafka, PostgreSQL, and ClickHouse to build scalable, highly available systems that convert raw maritime telemetry into real-time insights.
Key responsibilities include:
- Architecting and scaling high-throughput backend applications and microservices using Python and PHP
- Building real-time streaming and analytical pipelines with Kafka and ClickHouse to process massive volumes of maritime tracking data
- Optimizing data persistence and storage by managing relational and analytical databases, tuning PostgreSQL queries, and designing ClickHouse schemas for low-latency queries at scale
- Owning production health and reliability through robust monitoring, alerting, and observability frameworks with operational ownership across staging and production
- Driving cross-functional collaboration with Product Managers, Tech Leads, Cloud Platform teams, and client-facing technical teams
- Elevating engineering standards and mentoring peer engineers through technical design reviews, code quality benchmarks, and architectural best practices
The role operates under a "you build it, you run it" engineering culture with high autonomy and focuses on modernizing core services and raising technical standards across the Maritime domain.
Requirements:
Must-haves:
- ~5+ years of professional software engineering experience developing, scaling, and maintaining complex production backend systems
- Strong proficiency in Python and PHP with deep experience in relational databases like PostgreSQL
- Hands-on production experience with Apache Kafka and high-performance analytical data stores like ClickHouse
- Proven track record designing RESTful APIs, distributed microservices, and high-concurrency architecture
- Strong background in CI/CD pipelines, containerized deployments (Docker/Kubernetes), and production observability/monitoring tools
Nice-to-haves:
- Familiarity with vessel AIS data, geospatial systems, logistics, or global trade datasets
- Track record of refactoring monolithic architectures into event-driven, decoupled microservices
- Experience with AWS cloud services and infrastructure-as-code (Terraform)
