Backend Lead – Python & AWS

Attention: This position requires hybrid work (2-3 days per week onsite) in Evansville, Indiana, USA. Unfortunately, remote work is not an option for this role.

Please apply only if you:

• Currently live in or near Evansville, IN, or
• Are willing and able to relocate to Evansville, IN, and
• Can commit to the required hybrid work schedule.

Candidates who are unable to work onsite in Evansville will not be considered for this opportunity. Thank you for your understanding.

Experience: 10–14 years of overall IT experience, including 3+ years in technical leadership 

Industry: Financial Services 

Position Overview 

Ness is seeking an experienced Backend Lead with strong hands-on expertise in Python development and AWS cloud services to lead the design, development, and deployment of scalable, secure, and high-performance backend applications. 

The ideal candidate will combine deep Python programming skills, cloud-native application development experience, API and microservices architecture expertise, and proven technical leadership. The role involves working closely with solution architects, product managers, DevOps engineers, data teams, and other engineering stakeholders to deliver reliable enterprise solutions in a secure financial services environment. 

Key Responsibilities 

1. Backend Development & Python Engineering 

• Lead the design, development, testing, and deployment of backend services and applications using Python. 

• Develop scalable RESTful APIs and microservices using frameworks such as FastAPI, Flask, or Django. 

• Establish coding standards, design patterns, reusable components, and engineering best practices. 

• Review code, provide technical guidance, and ensure code quality, maintainability, performance, and test coverage. 

• Optimize application performance, concurrency, database access, and resource utilization. 

• Implement robust error handling, logging, validation, and exception management. 

2. AWS Cloud Architecture & Development 

• Design and develop cloud-native backend applications leveraging AWS services. 

• Build and deploy applications using services such as: 

• AWS Lambda and Amazon ECS/EKS 

• Amazon API Gateway 

• Amazon S3 

• Amazon SQS and Amazon SNS 

• Amazon RDS and DynamoDB 

• AWS Step Functions and EventBridge 

• AWS CloudWatch, IAM, and Secrets Manager 

• Implement event-driven architectures, asynchronous processing, and distributed application patterns. 

• Design for scalability, high availability, fault tolerance, disaster recovery, and cost optimization. 

• Collaborate with cloud and infrastructure teams to implement secure and reliable deployment architectures. 

• Experience with MuleSoft and Apollo GraphQL is a Plus 

3. API & Microservices Architecture 

• Define backend service boundaries, API contracts, integration patterns, and service communication strategies. 

• Develop secure REST APIs and integrate with internal and external enterprise systems. 

• Implement authentication and authorization using OAuth 2.0, JWT, IAM, and other applicable security mechanisms. 

• Design asynchronous workflows using messaging and event-driven integration patterns. 

• Ensure APIs meet requirements for performance, scalability, versioning, observability, and backward compatibility. 

4. Database & Data Management 

• Design efficient data models and optimize queries for relational and NoSQL databases. 

• Work with PostgreSQL, MySQL, Amazon RDS, DynamoDB, or equivalent database technologies. 

• Implement transaction management, connection pooling, indexing, and data consistency controls. 

• Ensure appropriate data validation, integrity, access control, and protection of sensitive information. 

5. Technical Leadership & Team Management 

• Lead a team of backend developers, providing technical direction, mentoring, and code review. 

• Translate business requirements into technical designs, development plans, and deliverable milestones. 

• Collaborate with architects, product owners, QA, DevOps, security, and business stakeholders. 

• Drive technical decisions, resolve complex engineering challenges, and manage technical dependencies. 

• Promote Agile engineering practices, continuous improvement, and shared ownership of production quality. 

• Participate in sprint planning, estimation, technical discussions, and delivery reviews. 

6. DevOps, Quality & Production Support 

• Build and maintain automated testing and CI/CD workflows in collaboration with DevOps teams. 

• Work with Git, Jenkins, GitHub Actions, AWS CodePipeline, or equivalent tools. 

• Implement unit, integration, API, and performance testing using frameworks such as pytest. 

• Support infrastructure automation using Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, or equivalent tools. 

• Monitor application health, diagnose production incidents, conduct root cause analysis, and implement corrective actions. 

• Establish logging, metrics, tracing, alerting, and operational readiness standards. 

7. Security & Financial Services Compliance 

• Implement secure coding practices and follow application security standards. 

• Protect sensitive customer and financial information through encryption, access controls, and secure secrets management. 

• Identify and remediate vulnerabilities in application code, dependencies, APIs, and cloud configurations. 

• Support auditability, traceability, and compliance with applicable financial services security and privacy requirements. 

• Partner with cybersecurity and risk teams to incorporate security controls throughout the software development lifecycle. 

• Security Architecture Experience with MuleSoft and Apollo GraphQL is a Plus 

Required Technical Skills 

• 10+ years of overall software engineering experience, with strong hands-on Python development expertise. 

• At least 3 years of technical leadership or experience leading backend engineering initiatives. 

• Strong proficiency in Python, object-oriented programming, data structures, algorithms, and software design principles. 

• Experience with FastAPI, Flask, Django, or similar Python frameworks. 

• Strong experience designing and developing RESTful APIs and microservices. 

• Hands-on experience with AWS cloud services and cloud-native application development. 

• Experience with AWS Lambda, API Gateway, S3, SQS/SNS, RDS, DynamoDB, IAM, and CloudWatch, or equivalent relevant services. 

• Strong understanding of relational and NoSQL databases, SQL, schema design, and query optimization. 

• Experience with automated testing, pytest, mocking, and test-driven development practices. 

• Proficiency with Git, CI/CD pipelines, Docker, and application deployment practices. 

• Knowledge of asynchronous programming, concurrency, distributed systems, and event-driven architecture. 

• Strong understanding of application security, authentication, authorization, and secrets management. 

• Excellent problem solving skills