Senior Python Engineer / Lead Developer (Agentic/llm systems)

Position Overview

We're seeking an exceptional Senior Python Engineer to take technical leadership of a complex, production-grade codebase. This role involves architecting and developing sophisticated systems that combine AI/LLM integration, code analysis, and security tooling. You'll be responsible for architectural decisions, feature development, team mentorship, and maintaining the highest standards of code quality.

Location: Remote

Experience Level: Senior (5+ years)

Commitment: Full-time

Core Responsibilities

• Technical Leadership
• Make critical decisions about system architecture, design patterns, and technology choices
• Establish and enforce coding standards, review practices, and quality benchmarks
• Define and prioritize technical initiatives aligned with product goals
• Lead architectural discussions and drive consensus on complex technical decisions
• Ensure system performance and scalability for production workloads

Feature Development

• Design and implement core system components using modular, extensible architectures
• Build and maintain integrations with external APIs and services (LLM providers, databases, etc.)
• Develop analysis engines and processing pipelines for complex data workflows
• Implement testing frameworks and validation systems
• Optimize critical code paths and system bottlenecks

Team Collaboration & Mentorship

• Review pull requests and provide constructive technical feedback
• Mentor junior and mid-level engineers in best practices and technical growth
• Maintain comprehensive technical documentation and architectural diagrams
• Conduct technical presentations and knowledge transfer sessions
• Collaborate across functions with stakeholders and team members

Technical Innovation

• Stay current with advances in Python ecosystem, AI/ML technologies, and relevant domains
• Evaluate and integrate new libraries, frameworks, and tools
• Research and prototype solutions to complex technical challenges
• Contribute to technical strategy and long-term planning

Required Technical Skills

• Python Expertise (Required)
• 5+ years of professional Python development with advanced proficiency in:
• Async/await patterns and concurrent programming
• Type hints and Pydantic for data validation
• Decorators, metaclasses, and advanced language features
• Modern package management (uv, pip, poetry)
• Testing frameworks (pytest, mocks, fixtures, test-driven development)
• Software Architecture: Experience designing modular, plugin-based systems with clean abstractions
• API Design: Creating intuitive interfaces and maintainable code structures
• Performance: Profiling, optimization, and handling large-scale data processing
• Version Control: Git workflows, code review practices, and collaborative development
• LLM & AI Integration (Preferred)
• LLM APIs: Hands-on experience with OpenAI, Anthropic, or similar providers including:
• Function/tool calling and structured outputs
• Prompt engineering and optimization
• Session management and conversation state
• Token tracking and cost optimization
• RAG Systems (Nice to have): Experience with vector databases (ChromaDB, Pinecone, Weaviate), embeddings, semantic search, LlamaIndex or LangChain
• AI/ML Concepts: Understanding of temperature, sampling, context windows, and model behavior
• Code Analysis & Parsing
• AST & Static Analysis: Experience with abstract syntax trees, code parsing, and program analysis
• Pattern Matching: Regex, semantic search, and code query techniques
• Control Flow: Understanding of call graphs, data flow, and execution path analysis
• Smart Contracts (Preferred) - Solidity and/or Rust: Ability to read and understand smart contract code
• Blockchain Fundamentals: Knowledge of EVM, transactions, gas mechanics, and contract execution patterns
• Security Awareness: Familiarity with common vulnerability patterns (reentrancy, access control, etc.)
• Tooling: Experience with Foundry, Hardhat, Anchor, or similar development frameworks

Additional Skills

• CLI Development: Building command-line tools (Typer, Click, argparse)
• Web Frameworks (Nice to have): Flask, FastAPI for APIs and web interfaces
• DevOps Basics: CI/CD, Docker, GitHub Actions
• Data Storage: Working with JSON, databases, and caching systems
• Software Development Best Practices
• Clean Code: SOLID principles, design patterns, and writing maintainable, extensible code
• Documentation: Clear technical documentation, architecture decision records (ADRs), and API documentation
• Testing Strategy: Comprehensive testing approaches including unit, integration, and end-to-end tests
• Code Review: Effective review practices with constructive, actionable feedback
• Agile Development: Experience with iterative development and continuous improvement
• Security Mindset: Awareness of common security vulnerabilities and defensive programming practices

Preferred Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional Python development
• 2+ years in a technical leadership or senior engineering role
• Experience building AI/LLM-powered applications in production
• Background in security, static analysis, or developer tools
• Experience with smart contracts (Solidity, Rust) or blockchain technologies (strong plus)
• Active open-source contributions (strong plus)

Technical Accomplishments

• Built and deployed production systems with complex workflows
• Designed and implemented modular, plugin-based architectures
• Experience with large-scale data processing or analysis systems
• Technical writing, blog posts, or conference presentations (plus)