Senior Backend / AI Systems Engineer — Long-Term Multi-Project Role

We are looking for a senior backend-leaning engineer to help build production-grade automation systems, AI-enabled internal tools, and integration-heavy software across multiple long-term projects. This is primarily a backend and systems engineering role. Some lightweight full-stack work may be needed for internal dashboards, admin panels, review queues, or operator tools, but the core requirement is strong backend engineering. This is not a Zapier, n8n, Make, or no-code automation role. We need someone who can design and ship reliable systems end to end: backend services, third-party integrations, data pipelines, background jobs, LLM-powered features, review dashboards, monitoring, and secure deployments. We are looking for a long-term collaborator. We will start with a small paid milestone, roughly 1–2 weeks with a fixed scope, to validate fit on both sides. If the collaboration works well, the scope can expand across several projects. The shape of the work * Backend services in Python and/or Node.js * Postgres data modeling and practical database design * Third-party API integrations, OAuth, webhooks, rate limits, retries, and idempotency * Background jobs, queues, scheduled tasks, and data sync workflows * LLM-powered features such as classification, extraction, summarization, retrieval, and agents * Lightweight internal dashboards, admin panels, review queues, and human-in-the-loop workflows * Observability, logging, monitoring, deployment hygiene, secrets, and basic CI/CD * Working with both existing codebases and greenfield builds You are right for this if * You have strong production backend experience with Python and/or Node.js * You can design clean APIs and maintainable backend architecture * You have real-world experience with LLM APIs in production, not only demos * You understand reliability: retries, fallbacks, idempotency, rate limits, queues, and failure modes * You are comfortable building simple internal UIs when needed, without needing to be a dedicated product designer * You can debug messy integration problems without needing constant direction * You think in milestones, communicate clearly, and flag risks early * You can work with rough business requirements and turn them into a practical technical plan EU timezone overlap is preferred, but not required if communication is strong. Not right for this if * Your automation experience is mainly Zapier, n8n, Make, or no-code tools * Your AI experience is mostly demos, wrappers, or simple chatbots * You are mainly a frontend developer looking for AI projects * You need detailed tickets for every small decision * You are not comfortable owning backend architecture and production reliability * You send templated proposals without reading the post