Senior Backend / Data Engineer (Scale-up)

About Source.ag

At Source.ag, we build software that helps the world’s leading greenhouse growers make better decisions every day. Our products combine data, models, and real-world constraints to optimize how food is grown at scale. This is not a typical SaaS problem. We work with messy, biological, and operational systems where decisions have real consequences. As we scale, the complexity of our systems and our organization increases quickly — and that is exactly the challenge this role is about.

The role

We are looking for a Senior Backend / Data Engineer to help us simplify, stabilize, and evolve our systems as the company grows.

This is an individual contributor role focused on high-level technical impact rather than people management or repetitive feature production. It is a role for engineers who value ownership, sound judgment, and the ability to act effectively even when information is incomplete. You will work on business-critical systems that other teams depend on, taking responsibility for how those systems behave in production.

You will likely thrive in this role if you enjoy:

• Working in scale-up environments where systems and processes are still evolving.

• Taking full ownership of problems, from first principles to production.

• Simplifying architectures that have grown too complex.

• Taking initiative without waiting for perfect alignment or explicit permission.

You may find this role challenging if you prefer:

• Strictly defined scopes and long planning cycles.

• Static systems with a low rate of change.

• Waiting for total consensus before moving forward.

What you’ll work on

Depending on your strengths and interests, your work may include:

• Designing, building, and operating backend services and data-heavy systems.

• Improving the reliability, performance, and cost-efficiency of existing platforms.

• Simplifying service boundaries, data flows, and infrastructure choices.

• Supporting product teams by making core systems easier and safer to use.

• Identifying potential scaling bottlenecks and resolving them proactively.

• Taking personal responsibility for the systems you develop and maintain.

Our stack today includes Golang, Python, Databricks / Delta Lake, PostgreSQL, and AWS — but we prioritize your judgment and problem-solving skills over experience with any specific tool.

After the first 6–12 months, success in this role looks like:

• Core systems are simpler, more predictable, and easier to change than when you arrived.

• Teams operate with more autonomy because the underlying systems are more reliable and better understood.

• Fewer production issues occur due to unclear ownership or hidden coupling.

• Architecture, data flow, and infrastructure decisions become more efficient over time.

• You have established deep trust to act on important problems independently.