Role Description We're looking for a strong backend engineer to take ownership of day-to-day backend and cloud tasks, including: - Building features - Fixing bugs - Evolving the schema - Integrating with LLM providers - Ensuring the AWS suite works well with the disconnected GPU server - Maintaining system observability in production This role allows the lead to focus on larger research-shaped problems, such as: - Managing a massive database of interconnected South African legal documents - Improving LLM models - Local model training The codebase is well-structured, well-tested, and well-instrumented. You will be stepping into a working production system that needs an engineer who can: - Read and extend the code without breaking it You will primarily write Python and some TypeScript for frontend staging, with the frontend team improving your work. Responsibilities include: - Managing Docker - Handling AWS - Working with user-related database components Qualifications - A computer scientist by training or demonstrable depth - Strong production Python experience (Django, async, standard library) - Database fluency, specifically PostgreSQL - Experience with AWS, Cloudflare, and Docker - CI/CD experience with GitHub Actions - System architecture instinct - Pragmatic frontend skills (React + TypeScript) - Tooling judgement using AI tools effectively - South African work-time overlap Requirements - Production experience with vector search, hybrid retrieval, or RAG pipelines - Domain-Driven Design experience - Experience with streaming technologies (SSE / WebSockets) - Microkernel / plug-in patterns experience - Experience with POPIA / GDPR / PCI-DSS compliance - Document-processing pipelines experience - Background in legal-tech, regtech, fintech, healthtech, or other regulated domains Benefits - Packages between R28 000 and R55 000 (total cost to company) - Equity available for the right candidate(s)

• Collaborate with the team to design, develop, and improve existing systems • Implement new features and enhance current platform functionality • Develop solutions supporting new products and user experiences • Maintain production systems and investigate root causes of issues • Actively participate in Agile/Scrum ceremonies • Ensure adequate unit and integration test coverage • Contribute to code reviews and technical discussions • Support architecture planning and system design activities • Communicate effectively and collaborate with distributed teams

• Be part of the development team; • Gather requirements, document, design, and implement solutions; • Ensure compliance with established requirements; • Manage own tasks autonomously; • Demonstrate proactive problem-solving skills.

• Own critical components end-to-end and deliver measurable improvements in system quality, scalability, and reliability. • Own delivery for significant features or systems: clarify requirements, design solutions, execute, ship, and iterate. • Design and build scalable backend services, APIs, and data pipelines that support core product functionality. • Drive system design decisions, balancing scalability, performance, reliability, and cost. • Define how quality is measured for your area (success metrics, testing strategy, observability) and automate it wherever possible. • Lead structured experimentation: define hypotheses, evaluate results, and translate insights into product and system improvements. • Improve operational readiness: deployment automation, monitoring/alerting, incident response, and performance optimization. • Mentor engineers through design reviews, code reviews, and hands-on technical guidance. • Influence engineering best practices, architecture decisions, and long-term technical direction.