Backend & Integrations Engineer (Apps Engineering)

At Cogna, we're working hard to solve the productivity crisis. Lagging productivity is the biggest barrier to economic growth and a major obstacle to addressing our most important issues, such as climate change, healthcare, and social equality.

But its not a single problem that can be tackled with a silver-bullet solution, its the accumulation of millions of highly specific, context-driven challenges across every facet of every organisation that have to be addressed on their own terms.

Cogna is on a mission to solve this very complex problem. Were creating an AI-powered platform to understand these inefficiencies within customers operating models, to define the requirements, and develop the software itself in a fully automated way. The result is high-quality, precision software at scale.

Since our launch in May 2023, weve already seen significant traction and customer revenue that outpaces most companies at our stage. Were backed by top VCs, including Notion Capital and Hoxton Ventures, and were growing our world-class team - ex Google, Microsoft, Palantir - to take us to the next level on our mission.

This is more than a job, its an opportunity to be part of something genuinely transformative. Are you up for the challenge?

Overview

Build and evolve backend services, integrations, and workflow logic for our SaaS apps. Youll work hands-on across Python APIs, data workflows, and external system connectors, often starting from automation-generated code (FE automation and Dagster DSL). Your job is to make that code production-ready fixing, extending, and integrating it with our broader architecture. Youll also be the teams AI development champion, embedding AI-powered workflows (like Cursor agent mode) into our daily engineering, creating guardrails, and helping others ship high-quality code faster.

What youll do

• Own backend features and API integrations (Python, FastAPI, gRPC, SQL).
• Adapt and extend auto-generated pipelines and front-end outputs.
• Build connectors for APIs, files, and external systems.
• Integrate LLM-based capabilities with robust evaluation and monitoring.
• Champion AI-assisted dev: set up guardrails, context packs, and mentor others.
• Collaborate with Solution Strategists, Data Platform, Platform and Support teams.

What were looking for

• Strong Python backend/API experience; SQL and data modelling skills.
• Proven integrations experience (APIs, SFTP, SharePoint, webhooks).
• Workflow orchestration (Temporal, Dagster) know-how.
• Track record using AI-assisted dev in production.
• Comfortable working with generated code and improving automation.
• Familiarity with CI/CD, Docker, cloud (Azure/AWS/GCP).
• Interest in AI and raising team AI skills.

What we offer

• Competitive salary and share option plan
• 25 days annual leave, plus public holidays
• Excellent pension scheme, matched to 7.5%
• Private healthcare, including family cover and pre-existing conditions
• Flexible hybrid working with 2 days per fortnight in our Farringdon office
• Regular social events and offsites
• Access to a gym and fitness classes in our office building