Principal Backend Developer

19 hours ago

Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand placeMe IT Recruitment Full time
Build the Next Generation of Geospatial Intelligence

Here's your chance to take a lead role in building a world-class geospatial intelligence platform from the ground up. This is not BAU, not legacy, not slow-moving enterprise — you'll be building the core backend that powers a product used globally, including rapid growth across the U.S. market.

If you want technical ownership, greenfield design, and the chance to influence the foundations of an intelligent, AI-enhanced geospatial system — this is the role.


Why this role?

You'll join a purpose-driven engineering team building a next-generation platform that transforms how the world captures, maps, and understands real-world environments. This is cutting-edge work involving geospatial data, 3D modelling, and high-volume event-driven architecture.

You'll have autonomy, trust, big problems to solve — and the chance to define a platform that will be used by multiple products across global teams.

This is the kind of role senior engineers wait years for


What you'll be doing

You'll be the Technical Lead for the backend platform — designing, delivering, and scaling a robust event-driven system using Python, TypeScript, AWS, and modern API patterns.

Your work will include:

  • Designing and building high-performance APIs that handle complex geospatial and 3D datasets
  • Turning R&D prototypes into production-ready platforms that scale worldwide
  • Coaching and guiding intermediate developers — both technically and through hands-on leadership
  • Using AI tools (Copilot, Claude, ChatGPT) for documentation, planning, workflow optimisation, and architecture
  • Driving AWS Well-Architected Reviews and embedding DevOps best practices
  • Collaborating across NZ and U.S. time zones as the platform scales globally

This is a deeply technical, deeply impactful role — where your engineering decisions shape product capability for years to come.


What you'll bring

You're a highly skilled backend engineer with strong architectural instincts, a product mindset, and a track record of building modern, distributed systems.

We'd love to see:

  • 10+ years' engineering experience, with ~5 years at senior/principal level
  • Strong experience in Python, TypeScript, distributed systems, and event-driven design
  • Strong API design experience and understanding of big data or high-volume systems
  • Experience building greenfield platforms, not just maintaining established stacks
  • Ability to quickly learn complex domains — GIS/geospatial or 3D modelling experience is a bonus
  • Comfort working across ambiguity, and shaping systems that other teams will rely on
  • Evidence of using AI tools beyond code generation — documentation, planning, schematics, workflow automation

You're someone who communicates clearly, collaborates well across cultures, and cares about building systems that are elegant, scalable, and genuinely useful.


Why you'll love it
  • You get to build something new, not maintain something old
  • You influence technical culture and platform direction
  • You work with people who value openness, creativity, and experimentation
  • Hybrid model: 3 days in office, 2 from home
  • High trust, low ego, genuinely collaborative environment
  • Huge runway for growth as the team scales
  • This is meaningful engineering work — the kind where you see your decisions directly shape product capability and customer outcomes.

What's next??

If you're excited about designing systems at scale, leading by example, and building the core of a platform that will change how industries understand the world around them — we'd love to hear from you.

Apply now and be part of something transformative.

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