Senior Backend Engineer - Data Platform (m/f/d)

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Our client, BLOCKS, is not simply building a product, but a new, smarter way to work. One where technology finally serves people again.

BLOCKS is bringing big-company cloud efficiency to startups and SMEs. We develop intelligent systems that automate routine work, give back thinking time, and empower people to focus on what matters most: clarity, creativity, and courageous decisions.

The AI agent “Major Tom” acts like a virtual DevOps engineer, finding waste and optimizing infrastructure in an automated way to maximize cloud efficiency.

Your role

• Build and evolve the data and backend platform. Collaborate with product, ML, and
  platform engineers to understand their requirements and translate them into robust batch
  and streaming pipelines, APIs, and infrastructure foundations.
• Drive cost-aware, sustainable growth of our data systems: monitor usage patterns,
  optimize compute/storage footprints, and build guardrails for predictable scaling.
• Develop and optimize our data storage layers. Everything from shaping schemas,
  partitioning, data lake formats, to caching/compute strategies to support fast,
  cost-efficient, multi-tenant access patterns.
• Apply modern async patterns, clean architecture, and well-tested abstractions to
  engineer backend services in Python that expose data cleanly and reliably to
  downstream teams.

What you bring

• Deep expertise in Python: Strong experience designing and building production-grade
  backend systems in Python, with clean architecture, async/await patterns, dependency
  injection, and familiarity with async ORMs (e.g., SQLAlchemy or similar).
• Data workflows pro: Hands‑on experience building and running data workflows at scale
  with tools like Pandas, PySpark, Airflow, or Trino. Solid understanding of distributed
  processing, scheduling, and failure handling.
• Data Infrastructure: Architect/optimize/scale SQL databases & data lakes (Iceberg,
  Delta Lake, Hudi, S3/Athena etc.) for performance/reliability/cost. Familiar with
  multi‑tenant isolation patterns.
• AWS expertise: Practical experience operating data systems in AWS: IaC
  (CloudFormation/Terraform), cross‑account IAM, storage/query layers (S3, Athena, Glue,
  etc.), and cost‑aware architecture decisions.
• Led system design and delivery: Engaged in thought leadership and mentoring in best
  practices for scalability, QA, CI/CD.
• Startup execution mindset: You have shipped 0→1 products fast with high ownership, autonomy, and accountability.
• Curious, pragmatic problem solver: You experiment quickly, learn deeply, and optimise for impact over theory.
• Direct communicator: You value clarity and feedback as tools for speed, improvement, and alignment.
• Demonstrated impact: You have impressive achievements from previous jobs and from side projects. Please share them with us.

We are builders

We are building something big. This isn’t for clock-watchers. It’s for builders who want to challenge themselves and their team every single day. Building means end-to-end ownership in small teams who ship fast, talk to their customers, and implement the learnings right away. Building means seeing what works and where your team needs to step up. Building means taking action, owning your mistakes, and correcting fast. Building means a laser‑focused culture: Direct feedback, zero politics, fast execution.

Why Blocks Engineering is different

We believe small teams with autonomy, clarity, and the right tools outperform bloated orgs. You’ll be one of our first 10 founding engineers. You will build from zero to one. Everyone in your team will be one of the smartest people you have ever met. You will ship fast, you will iterate faster, you will grow the fastest you have ever experienced. You will challenge each other to produce the best outcomes.

We are building a lean, AI‑native, product‑led engineering culture. AI is embedded in everything we do: From the platform itself to how we build and ship. We believe AI should amplify engineers, not replace them.

What we offer

• Zero to One. The opportunity to build a product that will become part of the standard startup toolset from scratch.
• True ownership. We challenge, you decide. If a decision is wrong, we learn from it and correct the course fast. No analysis paralysis, just pure builder mode.
• A great compensation package. Top‑of‑market compensation and a virtual stock option program.
• Relocation support. We’re based in Berlin. We believe early‑stage is best done in person and in‑office.

Seniority level: Mid‑Senior level

Employment type: Full‑time

Job function: Information Technology

Industries: IT Services and IT Consulting