We're looking for a senior Python engineer to join a small, fast-moving startup team. You'll work across our FastAPI microservices and Django applications, owning features end-to-end from design through deployment. This is a hands-on role for someone who's comfortable with ambiguity, enjoys shipping quickly, and can work effectively without a lot of process around them.It's a newly established UK-based startup building an insurance platform from the ground up, focused on quote generation and management. The solution will include multiple engines for pricing, estimations, and other components supporting the insurance quoting process.What you’ll doComfortable speaking up directly: confident communicating in English (written and verbal) with the wider team — sharing progress, talking through trade-offs, and being honest when a deadline or scope doesn't feel realistic.Happy to keep a consistent overlap window: able to commit to overlapping hours each day for standups, reviews, and quick chats, even if most of your day runs independently.Keeps people in the loop without being asked: shares progress and flags blockers early — the team should never have to chase you to find out how something's going.Takes ownership and runs with things: picks up a ticket or requirement, asks good questions upfront, and gets on with it rather than waiting to be told each next step.Builds trust naturally: understands that in a remote setup, trust comes from consistent delivery and good communication, and is happy to be judged on both.Genuinely curious about the product: takes the time to understand what's being built and why, rather than treating tickets as isolated tasks to tick off.Sensible with sensitive information: handles code, data, and business details with care, and is comfortable working under NDAs where needed.Fits into how the team already works: happy to follow existing workflows, ticketing, sprint cadence, and code review norms, even where they differ from what you're used to.Stays steady when things shift: takes changing priorities in stride without needing everything re-explained from the top.What you need to be successfulStrong, demonstrable production experience in at least one of FastAPI or Django, with solid working knowledge of the other (or a clear ability to pick it up quickly).5+ years of professional Python development in agile environmentsSolid understanding of relational database design and query performance with PostgreSQL.Experience building and operating event-driven or asynchronous systems, ideally with Kafka or a comparable message broker (e.g. RabbitMQ, SQS).Comfortable working with AWS services for deployment, storage, and infrastructure (e.g. EC2/ECS, S3, RDS, Lambda — exact services flexible).Strong general engineering fundamentals: API design, testing practices, code review, debugging production issues, and writing maintainable, well-documented code.Familiarity with containerisation (Docker) and CI/CD pipelines is a plusRecent experience of using AI for python development in production systemsTech Stack: Python, FastAPI (microservices), Django (core applications), PostgreSQL, Kafka, AWSNice to havePrior experience at a fast moving startup or similar.Exposure to observability tooling (logging, metrics, tracing) and production supportExperience mentoring or reviewing the work of more junior engineers. Show more Show less