Backend Engineer

Here at The Exploration Company, we are developing, producing, and operating Nyx, a modular and reusable space orbital vehicle that can eventually be refuelled in orbit and that can carry cargo - and potentially humans in the longer run.Join us as a Backend Engineer, where you will contribute to developing a robust and scalable internal platform.

• Maintain and evolve a production FastAPI backend serving REST APIs for authentication, authorization, file processing, search, and AI-assisted workflows
• Contribute to our real-time collaborative editing service built on Hocuspocus, Y.js, and Node.js
• Design and ship database migrations using SQLAlchemy and Alembic against production MySQL databases
• Build and improve AI-assisted features using LangChain and our document embedding pipelines
• Ensure reliability through automated testing with pytest and operational validation
• Collaborate with frontend engineers and operations teams to understand and meet their needs

• Proficiency in Python and experience building REST APIs with FastAPI or a comparable framework
• Familiarity with relational databases (MySQL or PostgreSQL) and ORMs such as SQLAlchemy
• Familiarity with caching and pub/sub systems (Redis)
• Comfort reading and writing Node.js/JavaScript for backend services
• Experience with AWS services (S3, IAM) and containerised deployments with Docker
• Experience with version control systems such as Git
• Familiarity with automated testing frameworks (pytest or equivalent)
• Understanding of software design patterns and engineering best practices
• Experience working in agile software development environments
• Strong analytical thinking and attention to detail with the ability to balance quality and delivery speed
• Motivation to thrive in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment
• Strong communication skills: able to express ideas clearly, precisely, and proactively

• Relocation assistance is provided for those willing to relocate including visa sponsorship where applicable
• Equal opportunity employer that values diversity and does not discriminate based on race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability status