Backend Engineer (Python)

We are looking for an Intermediate Backend Engineer (Python) to join our team and contribute to the development of MDPI Pulse, an important initiative shaping how MDPI engages with the academic community. As a Backend Engineer, you will have the opportunity to design technical solutions, build reliable services and data flows, and contribute to how those solutions are deployed and operated in production.

You will work closely with the Data Engineer assigned to the project, as well as the Belgrade email-marketing operations team and other teams such as Product, QA, UX and DevOps, with a mutual goal to help scale Pulse and targeted email campaigns across more institutions and countries.

Working primarily with Python, you will contribute to improving content engagement and enabling more targeted and relevant email communication.

Core Responsibilities

• Design, develop and maintain scalable backend services and APIs using Python.
• Contribute to software architecture and technical design decisions, translating product requirements into reliable backend solutions.
• Design and maintain data pipelines that support Pulse’s targeting and communication capabilities, from ingestion and transformation through to storage and consumption.
• Work with data from a variety of sources and storage technologies - relational databases, vector databases, object storage and analytical tooling, and collaborate closely with Data Engineers to ensure reliable movement and processing of data across systems.
• Contribute to the reliability, scalability and maintainability of data-processing workflows.
• Deploy, containerize and operate backend services in production, taking ownership of the full path to production through Docker, Kubernetes and CI/CD pipelines.

Additional Responsibilities

• Write integration tests and maintain comprehensive test coverage for owned components. 
• Perform code reviews, providing constructive feedback to improve team code quality. 
• Apply observability principles to owned services, contributing to service health monitoring and alerting.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or a related field.
• Around 5 years of professional experience in backend or software engineering, with strong hands-on experience using Python.
• Solid experience with backend architecture and software design, including designing and implementing reliable, maintainable services and REST APIs.
• Strong knowledge of databases and SQL, with hands-on experience across relational engines such as MySQL, PostgreSQL and MariaDB, including ORM frameworks, database migrations and query optimization. Experience with vector databases, such as Qdrant, is a strong advantage.
• Practical experience designing and operating data pipelines, including columnar file formats (Parquet) and object storage (S3), as well as analytics and transformation tooling such as DuckDB and dbt.
• Solid DevOps notions and proven experience taking software to production, including Git, Docker, Kubernetes and CI/CD pipelines, and comfort operating and troubleshooting services in live environments.
• Excellent written and spoken English.
• Ability to work independently, take ownership of technical solutions and collaborate effectively with engineering and cross-functional teams.

About MDPI

Headquartered in Switzerland, MDPI is a fully Open Access publisher with a portfolio of more than 500 journals across all scientific disciplines. To date, MDPI has published the works of over 4.5 million researchers, collaborating with an extensive network of academic institutions and scientific societies worldwide. Above all, MDPI is committed to ensuring that high-quality research is freely accessible to readers across the globe.

At MDPI, technology is not just a support function - it’s a core driver of our innovation, performance and customer experience. We are proud to develop most of our software in-house and host our systems on-premises, further enriching our already diverse technology landscape. Our commitment to building on open-source stacks empowers our teams to work with flexible, modern and community-driven tools. From cutting-edge submission systems to advanced digital services, our IT environment is a dynamic playground where creativity meets complexity. With a strong focus on continuously growing our technology capabilities, MDPI offers a unique opportunity to work at the forefront of digital transformation in publishing. Join us and be part of a team where your ideas matter, your skills are valued and your passion for technology can truly thrive.

Initiatives

At MDPI, we develop and maintain various platforms in order to better serve the scientific community. Please find here-below a list of our main platforms:

https://www.mdpi.com/

https://sciprofiles.com/

https://sciforum.net/

https://www.scilit.net/

https://www.preprints.org/

https://encyclopedia.pub/

https://www.mdpi.com/books/

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