Backend Engineer

Title: Backend Engineer (Big Data & AWS) Location : Rockville, MD or McLean, VA Target Start Date : ASAP Type: contract Pay Rate: DOE

We are seeking a Backend Engineer who brings strong ownership, technical depth, and a passion for building scalable, data-driven systems. This individual will play a key role in designing and delivering backend services that power high-performance applications and analytics platforms.

This role requires someone who can operate across distributed systems, contribute to architectural decisions, and collaborate closely with cross-functional partners to deliver impactful solutions. Responsibilities • Design, develop, and maintain scalable backend services and APIs supporting data-intensive applications • Build and optimize distributed systems leveraging big data technologies such as Spark, Hive, and Presto • Develop high-performance APIs that enable interactive access to large-scale datasets • Partner with product, data, and engineering teams to translate business requirements into technical solutions • Contribute to system design, architecture discussions, and engineering best practices • Ensure reliability, scalability, and performance of services deployed in AWS environments • Participate in Agile development processes, including sprint planning, code reviews, and continuous improvement • Support CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure-as-code practices for efficient and repeatable deployments • Stay current with emerging technologies and contribute to innovation across the engineering organization Required Qualifications • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field • 5 years of software engineering experience, with a focus on backend development • Strong programming experience in one or more of the following: Java, Python, or TypeScript • 3 years of experience working with big data technologies (e.g., Spark, Hadoop ecosystem, Presto/Trino) • 3 years of experience building and consuming RESTful APIs • Strong SQL skills with experience working across large, complex datasets • Hands-on experience with AWS services such as S3, EMR, Lambda, ECS, or similar • Experience with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, or similar) • Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code tools (e.g., CloudFormation, Terraform) Preferred Qualifications • Experience building data platforms or data-driven applications at scale • Exposure to streaming technologies (e.g., Kafka) • Experience with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes/EKS) • Familiarity with data lake architectures and query engines (e.g., Athena, Trino) • Experience supporting production systems, including monitoring and performance tuning What Sets You Apart • Strong problem-solving skills and ability to navigate ambiguity • Ownership mindset with a focus on delivering high-quality outcomes • Ability to communicate effectively across technical and non-technical stakeholders • Passion for continuous learning and improving engineering practices

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