Kensho is a Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) company, centered around providing cutting-edge solutions to meet the challenges of some of the largest and most successful businesses and institutions. We are owned by S&P Global and operate independently. Our toolkit illuminates insights by helping the world better understand, process, and leverage messy data. Specifically, Kensho’s solutions largely involve speech recognition (ASR), entity linking (NED), structured document extraction, automated database linking, text classification, and more.

Kensho’s Applications group develops the web apps and APIs that deliver Kensho’s AI capabilities to our customers. Our teams are small, product-focused, and intent on shipping high-quality code that best leverages our efforts. We’re collegial, humble, and inquisitive, and we delight in learning from teammates with backgrounds, skills, and interests different from our own.

As a Backend Engineer II on the Emerging Applications team, you will develop the software behind our reliable, secure, and performant APIs. You will collaborate with colleagues from Machine Learning, Product, and Infrastructure, as well as with other engineers within the Applications team. You have experience deploying production code in highly scalable distributed systems. You are a thoughtful, deliberate technologist and share your knowledge generously.

At Kensho, we believe in flexibility-first, and give our employees the opportunity to work from where they feel most productive and engaged (must be in the United States). We also value in-person collaboration, so there may be times when travel to one of our Kensho hubs (e.g., Cambridge, MA or NYC) will be required for team meetings or company events.

Kensho states that the anticipated base salary range for the position is 130k-175k. In addition, this role is eligible for an annual incentive bonus and equity plans. At Kensho, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case.

What You'll Do:

• Design, develop, test, document, deploy, maintain, and improve software
• Work with key stakeholders to develop system architectures, API specifications, implementation requirements, and complexity estimates
• Test assumptions through instrumentation and prototyping
• Promote ongoing technical development through code reviews and knowledge sharing

What You'll Need:

• At least two years of direct experience developing SaaS applications within a team
• At least one year of professional experience in Python
• Thoughtful and efficient communication skills (both verbal and written)
• Experience developing SaaS application backends and APIs using a variety of tools
• Experience working across many stages of the software development lifecycle
• Experience turning abstract business requirements into concrete technical plans
• Sound reasoning about the behavior and performance of loosely-coupled systems
• Proficiency with algorithms (including time and space complexity analysis), data structures, and software architecture

Technology You'll Encounter:

• Django, Flask, Python 3, PostgreSQL
• Git, Jsonnet, Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes
• Celery, RabbitMQ, Kafka
• Prometheus, Grafana, Sentry