Senior Software Engineer

Senior Python Backend Engineer

£550/day | Outside IR35 | 4 Months | Hybrid (Watford)

We're working with a technology company building high-performance backend platforms, and we're looking for an experienced Senior Python Backend Engineer to join the team on an initial 4-month contract.

This is a hands-on engineering role focused on designing, building and improving production backend services.

This is NOT an AI, Data Engineering or Cloud Engineering position.

What you'll be doing

• Designing and building production Python backend services using FastAPI
• Developing scalable REST APIs and distributed backend systems
• Working with event-driven architectures using technologies such as Kafka or RabbitMQ
• Improving performance, reliability and maintainability of existing services
• Collaborating with experienced backend engineers on architecture and code quality
• Writing clean, well-tested Python code using modern engineering practices

What we're looking for

• Strong commercial Python development experience
• Commercial experience with FastAPI (or extensive modern Python API development)
• Experience designing and maintaining production REST APIs
• Background working with microservices and distributed systems
• Experience with messaging technologies such as Kafka, RabbitMQ or similar
• Strong SQL/database knowledge
• Experience with Pytest and automated testing
• Comfortable debugging and improving existing production code

Nice to have

• Async Python (AsyncIO)
• Docker
• Kubernetes
• PostgreSQL
• SQLAlchemy
• Time-series or event-driven platforms

This role isn't right if...

• Your recent experience is primarily AI / LLM / RAG / Agentic AI
• You're mainly a Data Engineer
• You're primarily a Cloud/DevOps Engineer
• You're an Architect or Manager looking for a leadership role rather than hands-on coding

We're looking for someone who enjoys solving backend engineering problems and writing production Python every day.

📍 Watford (Hybrid)

💷 £550/day Outside IR35

📅 4-month initial contract

🚀 Immediate start

If you're an experienced Python Backend Engineer looking for your next contract, I'd love to hear from you.