Senior Python Django Developer

Job Purpose

About RWS

RWS is a content solutions company, powered by technology and human expertise. We grow the value of ideas, data and content by making sure organizations are understood. Everywhere.

Our proprietary technology, 45+ AI patents and human experts help organizations bring ideas to market faster, build deeper relationships across borders and cultures, and enter new markets with confidence - growing their business and connecting them to a world of opportunities.

It’s why over 80 of the world’s top 100 brands trust RWS to drive innovation, inform decisions and shape brand experiences.

With 60+ global locations, across five continents, our teams work with businesses across almost all industries. Innovating since 1958, RWS is headquartered in the UK and publicly listed on AIM, the London Stock Exchange regulated market (RWS.L).

For further information, please visit: RWS

Job Purpose RWS Protect is one of the world’s largest providers of services to those needing to protect their Intellectual Property. In this age of AI the protection of ideas & creativity is more important than ever, so we are creating the first AI powered toolset to meet this demand.We are seeking a Senior Python Django Backend Developer to join us as we build this new generation of AI-powered IP protection tools. The role has been created to expand our engineering capability at a pivotal moment, so we can bring these tools to market and keep evolving our product suite as the needs of innovators, creators and rights-holders change.You will play a key part in turning our ambitions into reliable, production-grade software. You'll own the Django services, APIs and integrations that power our core applications, including connecting AI capabilities to the data and workflows our clients depend on. You'll deliver new features, improve performance and keep our back-end platform modern, secure and scalable as demand grows. Alongside delivery, you'll help shape the technical direction of the Back End team: raising the bar on architecture and code quality and bringing shared patterns across our services closer together so we can build and ship faster with confidence.Please note that this is a hybrid role at either our Sheffield or London office.

Job Overview

Key ResponsibilitiesDelivery and technical craft

• Lead the design and delivery of back-end features, APIs and integrations across our core applications, from requirement through to release.

• Ensure clean, maintainable and well-tested Python and Django code, and set the standard that the rest of the team works to.

• Own architectural decisions within the back-end codebase, including service boundaries, data models and API design, making sure they are documented, understood and applied consistently.

• Design and optimise PostgreSQL schemas and queries so that our applications stay fast and responsive on large data sets.

• Build and operate reliable asynchronous and scheduled workloads using Celery and Redis, with sensible retry, idempotency and monitoring.

• Design and maintain REST APIs, and integrate third-party and partner services reliably and securely.

• Support release readiness through debugging, testing, performance tuning, observability, documentation and issue resolution.

Team and technical leadership

• Act as a senior voice in the Back End team, bringing considered opinions and constructive challenge.

• Mentor and develop less experienced engineers through code review, pairing and knowledge sharing.

• Raise the quality bar in code reviews and help the team reach pragmatic technical decisions.

• Lead by example in estimation, planning, stand-ups, reviews and retrospectives.

• Give and receive feedback openly, using reviews and retrospectives to improve ways of working.

• Contribute to team documentation, reusable examples and onboarding material for new joiners.

• Take ownership of your own development and stay current with Python, Django and back-end engineering practice.

Commercial and stakeholder awareness

• Work closely with product, QA, front-end and client-facing colleagues to clarify requirements, manage dependencies and deliver agreed outcomes.

• Understand the commercial impact of delivery choices, balancing speed, quality, maintainability and client priorities.

• Provide realistic estimates and flag risks or blockers early, so that scope, cost and timelines can be managed effectively.

• Identify and drive down technical debt and rework across the back-end codebase, including dependency and framework upgrades, making the case for investment where it is needed.

• Communicate technical choices, trade-offs and recommendations clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Skills & ExperienceEssential

• Substantial commercial experience building and shipping production back-end applications in Python, Django and Django REST Framework, including the ORM, migrations, authentication, serializers and testing.

• Strong PostgreSQL skills, including schema design, indexing and optimising queries over large data sets.

• Hands-on experience with Celery and Redis for asynchronous and scheduled work, with a solid grasp of retries, idempotency and failure handling.

• A strong understanding of back-end architecture, API design, security and third-party integrations, with a track record of making and owning architectural decisions.

• Experience mentoring or technically leading engineers within a multi-disciplinary team, using agile delivery, CI/CD and automated testing.

• Excellent debugging, problem-solving and code review skills, and the ability to communicate technical choices, estimates, risks and trade-offs clearly.

Nice to have

• Experience with WebSockets or asynchronous Python (for example Django Channels or ASGI), or with another Python framework such as Flask or FastAPI.

• Experience building LLM-powered features, such as retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), embeddings or vector search.

• Experience with AWS, in particular S3, and with containerised deployment and monitoring of production issues.

• Experience with NoSQL databases such as MongoDB, and with integrations such as Microsoft Business Central and OneDrive.

• Previous hands-on experience integrating Twilio and/or SendGrid.

Life at RWS

Life at RWS- If you like the idea of working with smart people who are passionate about growing the value of ideas, data and content by making sure organizations are understood, then you’ll love life at RWS.

Our purpose is to unlock global understanding. This means our work fundamentally recognizes the value of every language and culture. So, we celebrate difference, we are inclusive and believe that diversity makes us strong. We want every employee to grow as an individual and excel in their career.

In return, we expect all our people to live by the values that unite us: to partner, putting clients fist and winning together, to pioneer, innovating fearlessly and leading with vision and courage, to progress, aiming high and growing through actions and to deliver, owning the outcome and building trust with our colleagues and clients.

RWS embraces DEI and promotes equal opportunity, we are an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. RWS is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at RWS are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, religion, nationality, ethnicity, sex, age, disability, or sexual orientation. RWS will not tolerate discrimination based on any of these characteristics.

RWS Values

Get the 3Ps right - Partner, Pioneer, Progress - and we´ll Deliver together as RWS.

Recruitment Agencies: RWS Holdings PLC does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward any unsolicited resumes to any RWS employees. Any unsolicited resume received will be treated as the property of RWS and Terms & Conditions associated with the use of such resume will be considered null and void.#LI-Hybrid, #LI-MS1