{"id":2597400,"url":"https://alion.io/job/photon-backend-lead-python-dallas-tx","title":"Backend Lead - Python - Dallas, TX","company":{"id":3186451,"name":"Photon","domain":"photon.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/photon-com","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Oracle","truth_index":{"grade":"D","score":45,"open_postings":595,"ghost_share":0.918,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"lead","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Dallas, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":46000,"max":null,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":46000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":10,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"Arize Phoenix","optional":false},{"name":"Asyncio","optional":false},{"name":"AutoGen","optional":false},{"name":"AWS","optional":false},{"name":"Azure","optional":false},{"name":"Celery","optional":false},{"name":"CrewAI","optional":false},{"name":"Docker","optional":false},{"name":"FastAPI","optional":false},{"name":"Function Calling","optional":false},{"name":"GCP","optional":false},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":false},{"name":"LangChain","optional":false},{"name":"LangGraph","optional":false},{"name":"LangSmith","optional":false},{"name":"LLM Guardrails","optional":false},{"name":"Multi-Agent Systems","optional":false},{"name":"OpenTelemetry","optional":false},{"name":"pgvector","optional":false},{"name":"Pinecone","optional":false},{"name":"PostgreSQL","optional":false},{"name":"Pydantic","optional":false},{"name":"Pytest","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"RabbitMQ","optional":false},{"name":"RAG","optional":false},{"name":"Redis","optional":false},{"name":"Weaviate","optional":false},{"name":"Fine-tuning","optional":true},{"name":"LLM","optional":true},{"name":"Ollama","optional":true},{"name":"vLLM","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-01-09T02:14:59Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-01-09","last_verified_at":"2026-10-18T03:04:56Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":282,"trust":{"level":"ghost","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale","company_stale"],"days_open":282},"description":"We are looking for a Backend Lead to architect and build the robust infrastructure required to power our Agentic AI products. You will lead the development of the \"brain\" of our platform-the layer where LLMs are transformed into autonomous agents that can plan, use tools, and solve complex problems.\nThe ideal candidate is a Python expert who thrives on complex system design, concurrency, and the unique challenges of integrating probabilistic AI into deterministic backend environments.\nKey Responsibilities\nAgent Architecture & Orchestration: Lead the design of multi-agent systems using frameworks like LangGraph, CrewAI, or AutoGen, ensuring agents can transition between states (Planning, Execution, Review) reliably.\n Scalable API Development: Architect high-performance, asynchronous APIs (primarily using FastAPI) to handle long-polling or streaming connections for AI-generated content.\nTooling & Function Calling Infrastructure: Build a secure \"sandbox\" environment that allows AI agents to execute code, query databases, and interact with third-party APIs safely and efficiently.\nRAG & Memory Management: Oversee the integration of Vector Databases (e.g., Pinecone, Weaviate, or PGVector) and design \"memory\" systems that allow agents to retain context across sessions.\n Observability & Tracing: Implement specialized monitoring and logging (using tools like LangSmith, Arize Phoenix, or OpenTelemetry) to trace agent decision-making and debug \"looping\" behaviors.\nSecurity & Guardrails: Design backend-level guardrails to prevent prompt injection and ensure that autonomous agents operate within strictly defined permission boundaries.\nLeadership & Mentoring: Set the standard for Python coding excellence, conduct deep architectural reviews, and mentor engineers on the nuances of AI-integrated backend development.\nTechnical Requirements\nPython Mastery: 10+ years of professional backend experience, with expert-level knowledge of Asynchronous Programming (Asyncio), Pydantic (v2), and Pytest.\nAI Frameworks: Hands-on experience building production-grade applications with LangChain or similar orchestration libraries.\n Concurrency & Task Management: Deep experience with message brokers and task queues (e.g., Redis, RabbitMQ, or Celery) to manage long-running agentic tasks.\nDatabase Expertise: Proficiency in PostgreSQL (relational) and at least one Vector Database. Experience in optimizing complex queries for AI retrieval.\nCloud Infrastructure: Strong knowledge of Docker, Kubernetes, and serverless architectures within AWS, Azure, or GCP.\nDesign Patterns: Mastery of microservices architecture, event-driven design, and API versioning.\nPreferred Qualifications\nExperience with LLM fine-tuning or local model deployment (vLLM, Ollama).\nKnowledge of Distributed Systems and handling the \"cold start\" or latency issues associated with large-scale AI models.\nBackground in Cybersecurity, specifically regarding autonomous systems and API security.\nCompensation, Benefits and Duration\nMinimum Compensation: USD 46,000\nMaximum Compensation: USD 162,000\nCompensation is based on actual experience and qualifications of the candidate. The above is a reasonable and a good faith estimate for the role.\nMedical, vision, and dental benefits, 401k retirement plan, variable pay/incentives, paid time off, and paid holidays are available for full time employees.\nThis position is not available for independent contractors\nNo applications will be considered if received more than 120 days after the date of this post","description_format":"text","description_chars":3526,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":10,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["401k plan","Retirement plans"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["IT Consulting & Digital Transformation"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-15T07:30:57Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":5,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.171,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":281,"expected_fill_days":20,"reasons":["conf:3","stale_co","velocity","ghost","win:tail","crowd:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":46000,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/photon-backend-lead-python-dallas-tx","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/photon-backend-lead-python-dallas-tx.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-18T13:36:32Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":20131,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-19T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":3186451},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=3186451"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fphoton-backend-lead-python-dallas-tx"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fphoton-backend-lead-python-dallas-tx"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fphoton-backend-lead-python-dallas-tx"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/photon-backend-lead-python-dallas-tx\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fphoton-backend-lead-python-dallas-tx"}]}