Mid-level Python Engineer

We're looking for a mid-level Python Engineer to join our team short-term (with potential extension) to help cover a team member currently on sick leave.

You'll work under the guidance of a Senior Data Engineer, contributing to Python backend services and AI/data pipelines that run on Azure.

This is a hands-on engineering role: writing clean Python, integrating services, improving reliability, and shipping working increments quickly.

What you'll work on (typical tasks):

You won't necessarily do everything below, but you should be comfortable across most of it:

• Build and maintain Python services / APIs (lightweight endpoints, background jobs, integrations)
• Implement or extend document ingestion pipelines (PDF/PPT), including OCR and text extraction
• Work with Azure storage + search (e.g., Blob Storage, AI Search) and integrate with Azure OpenAI (embeddings + LLM calls)
• Support vectorization, indexing, and retrieval workflows (RAGstyle pipelines)
• Improve pipeline observability: basic monitoring of cost/latency/token usage, and debugging performance issues
• Collaborate with the team on data structures, permissions, usage tracking, and secure access patterns (rolebased access)

What we're looking for

• Strong Python engineering skills (writing productiongrade code, not notebooks only)
• Experience building APIs and backend integrations
• Practical experience with cloud services (Azure preferred, but AWS/GCP is fine if you learn fast)
• Experience with LLMs, embeddings, vector stores, ingestion pipelines, RAG
• You're proactive, structured, and comfortable working with supervision

Engagement details

• Start: ASAP
• Duration: initially shortterm (sick leave cover), potential extension depending on needs
• Time zone: Europe/Lisbon preferred, but most tasks can be done asynchronous
• Workflow: you'll be supervised by a Senior Data Engineer and work from a defined backlog

To apply, please include:

• A short summary of your most relevant Python/backend work
• Any experience with Azure (which services you used)
• Any experience with LLM pipelines / embeddings / ingestion workflows
• Your availability (hours/week) and earliest start date
• Links to GitHub / portfolio (optional but helpful)

Contract duration of 1 to 3 months. with 30 hours per week.

Mandatory skills:

Python, API, Microsoft Azure