About Spoor

Spoor is an ambitious, venture capital-backed scale-up on a mission to make wind power nature-friendly. We build cutting-edge AI technology - combining computer vision and advanced data analytics - to help energy operators reduce project risk, protect biodiversity by reducing collisions, and scale renewable energy with confidence.

We're growing fast, and our team of 12 nationalities is proof that diverse perspectives drive innovation. If you're excited about working at the intersection of AI, hardware, and clean energy, we want to hear from you!

About the Role

Are you a "first principles" engineer who loves the elegance of a well-designed system? At Spoor, we are moving beyond cloud-elasticity to solve real-world physics and data problems. You will lead the charge in decoupling our data layers, redefining our API contracts, and porting heavy ML workloads to edge devices (AGX Orin). We need a versatile backend generalist who can bridge the gap between high-level data modeling and low-level system optimisation.

As a Senior Backend & Systems Engineer, you will be a cornerstone of Spoor’s technical evolution. You will work with the team to move our architecture from a monolithic data approach to a decoupled, service-oriented ecosystem. Your mission is to ensure that whether our code is running in the cloud or at the edge, it is performant, secure, and resilient. While your home is in the backend, you are a bridge-builder who enjoys helping the Frontend Application and ML teams optimise their interactions with the core system.

What you'll do

• Introduce abstraction into our system backend, decoupling our application and database layers

• Align the data layer with product data object concepts

• Enable ML OPS and Application teams with scalable backend services

• Enable our cloud based AI processing piplines to operate in resource limited edge computing environments

What we're looking for

• Systems Engineering Mastery: 6-7 years of experience building and scaling distributed backend systems. You have a deep understanding of how software interacts with hardware and networking.

• Python Excellence: Expert-level proficiency in Python. Leveraging AI tooling to write clean, idiomatic, and highly performant code, with a focus on asynchronous patterns and system-level optimisation.

• API & Interface Design: A proven track record of designing robust, versioned API surfaces. You understand the "contract" between the backend and its consumers (Frontend/ML) and design for stability and ease of use.

• Containerisation & Linux Internals: Deep experience with Docker and container runtimes. You are comfortable navigating Linux environments and optimising system performance without the safety net of "infinite" cloud scaling.

• Strategic Data Modeling: Expertise in transforming complex, messy data into structured "Data Products." You understand how to model data to align with business value and user analysis needs.

• Architectural Decoupling: Skilled in implementing abstraction layers and design patterns to separate business logic from data persistence.

• Security-First Mindset: Experience in designing systems with strict separation of concerns, ensuring sensitive infrastructure and credentials are isolated from consumer-facing data layers.

• First-Principles Thinker: When faced with a new challenge, like moving a processing pipeline to the Edge, you don't just look for a library; you break the problem down to its core constraints and build the most efficient solution.

• The "Versatile Engineer" Spirit: You are a specialist in backend systems but a generalist by heart. You are enthusiastic about jumping into the "application backend" or assisting the ML team to ensure the whole ship moves faster.

• Collaborative Technical Partner: You enjoy working with colleagues, offering your own architectural insights while ensuring the collective technical vision is executed with precision.

• Pragmatic & Delivery-Focused: You have "gotten your hands dirty" in high-growth environments. You know when to strive for architectural perfection and when to deliver a pragmatic solution that moves the needle. You understand when to incur technical debt and when to pay it down.

• Mission-Driven: You are genuinely motivated by Spoor’s mission to provide environmental intelligence and help wind energy and wildlife coexist.

• Agentic AI: Bonus points if you are a pioneering spirit, exploring the possibilities of Agentic AI based development.

Success looks like

• You have successfully implemented an abstraction layer that acts as the "source of truth" for the application. The frontend and external services no longer touch the database directly. This allows the team to refactor schemas, migrate data, and optimise storage engines without a single line of code changing in the UI.

• You have translated the architectural vision into a lean, containerised system that runs reliably on edge hardware. By applying first-principles thinking to memory management, CPU usage, and I/O, you’ve ensured our ML pipelines perform consistently in the field without the "safety net" of cloud-scale resources.

• Our data structures are no longer just "storage" - they are "Data Products." You have re-modeled the schema to provide queryable units of value that make data visualisation and analysis intuitive. Simultaneously, you have enforced a strict separation of concerns, ensuring sensitive internal methodologic and infrastructure data are isolated from consumer-facing information.

• You have established a standardised API surface and optimised query patterns that have significantly increased the velocity of the Frontend Application team. While your focus is the backend, your versatility has allowed you to jump in and assist the ML and Frontend Application teams, ensuring there are no "silos" in the engineering process.

Why Join Spoor?

🌍 Mission that matters — Help renewable energy and wildlife coexist at scale

🤖 Work with cutting-edge AI — Be a part of building a world leading AI for aerial object detection, tracking and classification

🚀 Join an amazing team — Work alongside some of the smartest, nicest people you will ever meet

📈 Have a huge impact — Your work will directly improve Spoor's ability to scale as both a product and as a business

✨ Diverse, inclusive team — 12 nationalities and a culture where different perspectives thrive

Please submit your CV and application in English.

Note: Only candidates invited for an interview will receive a response.