Senior Backend Engineer (Python)

About this role

SENIOR BACKEND ENGINEER (PYTHON) About Us Scalera is an ETH Zurich spin-off building AI-powered procurement software for the €200B+ European construction industry. Our platform automates supplier selection, tender management, and bid evaluation, already processing over CHF 8bn in tender volume for 110+ customers across Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. We’re a small, fast-moving team that works closely with users and applies genuinely new AI techniques to complex, real-world problems. We're growing our team and looking for an engineer who's excited about building the infrastructure behind intelligent procurement. The Role You’ll join a collaborative engineering team building the services and APIs that power Scalera’s AI-driven platform. Working closely with the CTO and VP Engineering, you’ll tackle challenges like integrating AI models into production workflows, processing large and complex datasets, and ensuring reliability as we scale across Europe. The problems we work on are rarely solved with off-the-shelf tools. We value engineers who are comfortable exploring, iterating, and discovering the right solution through experimentation. What You’ll Do - Own problems end-to-end: talk to users, understand their needs, and ship solutions - Build and maintain Python backend services that bring AI capabilities into production (e.g. document parsing, supplier matching, bid scoring) - Design and implement APIs and integrations connecting our AI systems with frontend applications and external platforms - Develop data pipelines to ingest, normalize, and process large volumes of structured and unstructured construction data - Collaborate with teammates on code reviews, testing, and CI/CD practices - Contribute ideas on applying new AI techniques to real procurement challenges What we're looking for - 4+ years of backend engineering experience, with Python as your primary language - Strong API design skills and experience with RESTful systems - Hands-on experience with FastAPI or Django in production - Solid understanding of databases, data modeling, and query optimization - Experience with CI/CD and a strong focus on code quality and maintainability - Ability to make progress in ambiguous environments. You can scope, prioritize, and deliver without perfect clarity - Interest in AI/ML systems and how they behave in production - Clear communicator and strong team collaborator Nice to have - Experience with GCP (Cloud Run, BigQuery, Pub/Sub or similar). - Background in data-heavy or AI-integrated product architectures. - Familiarity with AI developer tooling (Cursor, Claude, Copilot, etc.). - B2B SaaS, construction tech, or procurement domain knowledge. - German language skills (bonus, not required). Working at Scalera - Zürich HQ, four days in-office with Fridays remote. - Small team, no bureaucracy. You’ll work directly with the people making decisions. - Competitive salary and equity.