Senior Backend Engineer

We’re a global team of over 400 people, working together to push the boundaries of open-source technology and multi-cloud solutions. Our vision is to help developers, builders, and creators bring their ideas to life with speed and simplicity, by providing a cloud data platform that makes open-source databases, search, streaming, and application infrastructure easily accessible to everyone.

The Role:

We’re looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to help bring this vision to life. You’ll design and build core services, shape APIs, work on data ingestion and orchestration, and contribute to the open-source projects we depend on. You’ll be a key part of a small, startup-mode team inside Aiven, shipping fast, learning from users, and setting the technical foundation for a product that will scale.

What You'll Do:

• Design and implement managed open source services that power the metadata discovery and governance system.

• Build and extend the Metadata Orchestrator, listening to control-plane events and orchestrating ingestion jobs without messy cron scheduling.

• Develop ingestion connectors & pipeline and backend logic for indexing and serving metadata.

• Shape APIs (REST/HTTP) that connect the backend with UI and integrations.

• Work with identity & policy mapping so Aiven Teams, Projects, and SSO map cleanly into managed service access controls (RBAC/ABAC).

• Focus on operability: deployment patterns, monitoring, observability (metrics/logs/traces), and incident response.

• Collaborate closely with engineers, designers, product, and platform/security teams to deliver end-to-end functionality.

What We're Looking For:

• Solid experience building backend services for managed services/SaaS.

• Hands-on coding experience with:

• Python for backend services, ingestion, and orchestration

• REST APIs as a primary interface

• JVM (Java / Kotlin) for fixes and improvements in the open-source projects

• Knowledge of data storage and indexing systems: relational DBs (PostgreSQL/MySQL), search engines (OpenSearch/Elasticsearch), and event logs (Kafka).
Familiarity with Kubernetes, Terraform/IaC, and cloud networking basics.

• A security-conscious mindset: you think about threat modeling, access controls, and auditability.

• Pragmatic problem-solving: you enjoy building clean systems that are easy to operate and evolve.

Nice to have:

• Previous experience at early-stage startups.

• Contributions to open-source projects.

• Exposure to AI workflows integrated into production software.

• Experience with metadata systems, policy-enforced access, or governance tools.

• Familiarity with Aiven-managed services (Kafka®, PostgreSQL®, OpenSearch®, ClickHouse®).

Don’t worry if your experience doesn’t line up perfectly – we still encourage you to apply! We believe in investing in our crabs’ professional growth.

Amazing! What’s next:

If you think Aiven is the place for you and that our Values align with yours, send us your resume and we’ll get in touch!

Global Benefits:

Our global benefits are designed to help you thrive and grow, personally and professionally:

• Participate in Aiven’s equity plan.

• Balance work and life with our hybrid work policy.

• Choose the equipment you need to set yourself up for success.

• Use your Professional Development Plan budget for learning opportunities.

• Receive holistic wellbeing support through our global Employee Assistance Program.

• Inquire about our Global Time Off Commitment (Parental and Sick Leave, as well as Personal Time)

• Enjoy country-specific benefits for our global cast.

How to Recognize and Avoid Employment Scams:

There has been a rise in fake job postings used by scammers to get personal information. At Aiven, all of our emails relating to recruitment come from an @aiven.io, @greenhouse.io or @eu.greenhouse.io domain and all of our interviews are conducted by video call or in person. Our interviews will never occur via text or chat. If you’re unsure of the legitimacy of a job opportunity/offer pertaining to Aiven, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected].

Equal Opportunities:

Aiven provides equal employment opportunities to all qualified employees and applicants for employment without regard to age, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, physical and mental ability, marital and family status or without regard to any other similar personal attributes. Aiven complies with applicable local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which the company operates. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, training and any other terms and conditions related to employment.

At Aiven we are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities or special needs in our working environment and job application procedures. We make all reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities or who otherwise need support to thrive in the workplace. We are committed to continuously improving workplace accessibility. There is an option to request a discussion in the application process but if you have any questions before applying please write to us at [email protected].