# Staff Backend Software Engineer

**Company:** [Lumafield](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/lumafield)
**Location:** San Francisco, CA
**Role:** Backend Engineering
**Salary:** $180k – $225k/yr
**Experience:** 10+ years
**Skills:** Python, Django, Drf, Postgres, AWS, S3, Rds, Aurora, Celery, Redis, SageMaker, Kubernetes, REST APIs
**Posted:** 2026-05-06

> Builds and owns scalable Python backends, REST APIs, and data pipelines for cloud platform handling X-ray/CT images. Requires 10+ years backend experience, expert Python/Django, deep AWS/PostgreSQL, with mentoring and architecture leadership.

## Job Description

## What you'll do

- Own backend architecture for cloud software supporting Neptune, Triton, and Voyager (services, APIs, persistence, async processing, storage and compute integrations).
- Design, build, and operate scalable Python backends (**Django / DRF**), **Celery** pipelines, and REST APIs with strong reliability, performance, and observability.
- Lead complex, data-heavy workflows: uploads, project/scan lifecycle, recipe automation, task orchestration, and algorithm integration.
- Architect **AWS** usage for backends: **S3**, **RDS/Aurora/Postgres**, IAM, networking; design **SageMaker** and related ML job flows (invocation, data paths, security, failure modes, cost) with ML and platform partners.
- Coach and mentor engineering team members across the organization in architecture best practices and principles.
- Collaborate closely with product managers and engineering leadership to align technical objectives with business deliverables.
- Get your hands dirty and build – expect to be hands-on and building regularly

## About you

- **Bachelor’s Degree** in Engineering or a related field
- **10+ years** of experience developing software, mostly backend
- Expert **Python**; 5+ years shipping production backends (**Django / DRF** a strong fit).
- Deep **PostgreSQL** and **AWS** data/storage (**S3**, **RDS/Aurora**); solid IAM and VPC-aware patterns
- 5+ years production **AWS**; practical **SageMaker** (or similar) for services you orchestrate, not only notebooks.
- Async systems: **Celery + Redis** or equivalent—queues, retries, idempotency, backpressure, prod debugging
- 2+ years of startup experience
- Owned architecture for complex, cloud-hosted, data-heavy products.
- Demonstrated ability to coach and mentor engineering peers on architectural principles.
- Experience designing for and complying with SOC2, ISO27001, ITAR, and other security compliance frameworks and standards

## Bonus points for

- Extensive experience with high-traffic, data-intensive web applications.
- **Django + Celery** at meaningful scale.
- Deep expertise in **Kubernetes** and **AWS** architecture, security, and optimization.
- High-throughput or large-payload APIs and pipelines.
- Regulated or export-controlled environments

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**Apply:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/1801b6b4-0118-40a4-ba9d-45e8f0742019
**Canonical:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/1801b6b4-0118-40a4-ba9d-45e8f0742019