Senior Backend Developer

Job Title: Senior Backend Developer - Lead Engineer

Location: Gurgaon (WFO, 5 Days)**

Department: Technology / Product Engineering

Reporting To: CMO / CDO

Employment Type: Full-Time, Permanent

Experience: 3+ Years

Company Profile

Ken Research is a global strategy consulting and market intelligence firm supporting enterprises, financial institutions, investors, and government bodies across India, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and global markets.

Our engineering and digital transformation teams build scalable platforms that power:

• Research & consulting automation
• Expert network workflows
• Data pipelines & intelligence systems
• AI-enabled tools for insight generation
• Customer portals & internal delivery productivity solutions

We focus on engineering excellence, speed, automation, and system reliability.

Role Summary

We are hiring a Senior Backend Developer (Lead Engineer) to architect, develop, and optimize backend systems that support Ken Research’s next-generation consulting, research, and AI-driven platforms.

You will own backend development end-to-end, work extensively with Python, Django, DRF, Gunicorn, manage scalable deployments, and integrate search, automation, and LLM-backed workflows where needed.

The role requires a startup mindset, strong accountability, system design clarity, and the ability to collaborate directly with the CMO/CDO on product vision, architecture, and technical decisions.

Key Responsibilities

1. Backend Engineering & Architecture

• Architect, build, and optimize backend systems using Python, Django, DRF
• Develop scalable microservices and REST APIs with secure, modular design
• Manage production deployments using Gunicorn, Nginx, Docker, Linux
• Build background workers for asynchronous tasks (Celery/RQ/SQS)
• Maintain clean, testable, high-performance backend code

2. Database, Search & Performance Optimization

• Design & optimize relational databases (PostgreSQL/MySQL)
• Implement caching (Redis), indexing, and query optimization
• Integrate and maintain Elasticsearch for scalable search
• Improve system performance, concurrency handling, and reliability

3. API Engineering & Integrations

• Build secure APIs for internal and external integrations
• Implement authentication, RBAC, rate-limiting, throttling
• Integrate AI/LLM services for automation and insight workflows (preferred)
• Build backend layers for portals, dashboards, workflows, and internal tools

4. CI/CD, DevOps & System Reliability

• Set up and manage CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions / Jenkins / GitLab)
• Ensure automated deployments, rollback mechanisms, and environment stability
• Implement logging, monitoring, and error tracking (Sentry/ELK Stack)
• Support scalable infrastructure and uptime improvements

5. Collaboration, Ownership & Leadership

• Work directly with CMO/CDO on product vision, system architecture, and release planning
• Collaborate with product, frontend, DevOps, analytics, and LLM teams
• Review code, enforce engineering guidelines, maintain documentation
• Mentor junior backend developers and build internal engineering capability
• Operate with complete ownership from planning → development → deployment

Preferred Technical Exposure (Value-Add)

(Not mandatory but strongly preferred)

• Elasticsearch advanced features (analyzers, scoring, boosting)
• LLM/AI integrations: OpenAI, Gemini, Claude
• Embeddings, vector databases (Pinecone, Weaviate, Chroma)
• Event-driven systems, automation, workflow orchestration
• Cloud services (AWS/GCP/Azure)
• Kubernetes familiarity

Qualifications & Skills Required

Education

• Bachelor’s/Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field

Experience

• 3+ years hands-on backend engineering
• Deep experience with Python, Django, DRF
• Experience with CI/CD, Elasticsearch, Docker, Linux, Redis
• Prior experience deploying production systems

Technical Skills

• Django, DRF, Python
• PostgreSQL/MySQL
• Elasticsearch
• Redis, Celery/RQ
• CI/CD pipelines
• Git/GitHub, Docker, Linux
• API design & microservices architecture
• System debugging & performance optimization

Soft Skills & Mindset

• High accountability and ownership
• Startup mindset: speed, autonomy, clarity
• Strong communication and cross-team collaboration
• Ability to break down complex problems into actionable development tasks
• Attention to detail and execution discipline

Outcome Expectations (KPI Level)

Engineering KPIs

• API uptime, stability, and response-time improvements
• Reduction in production issues & bug counts
• Measurable improvements in backend performance

Delivery KPIs

• On-time delivery of backend modules
• Zero-regression CI/CD releases
• Successful integration of Elasticsearch & LLM workflows

System KPIs

• Scalability enhancements
• Infrastructure reliability & monitoring improvements

Apply

Email your CV to: [email protected]