Senior Python Backend Engineer – Biodiversity & Acoustic AI
Company Description
Wilder Sensing is building a platform to monitor biodiversity at scale using passive acoustic sensors and machine learning. We work with conservation organisations, land managers, and energy providers to generate actionable ecological insights from large-scale environmental data.
Our platform processes tens of terabytes of audio data annually, applying AI models (e.g. bird and bat detection) and delivering analytics that inform real-world environmental decisions.
Role Description
We are looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to join our small, high-impact team, building technology that helps us better understand and protect the natural world.
You will play a key role in developing and scaling our platform — from ingestion pipelines and APIs to analytics workflows — turning large-scale environmental data into meaningful ecological insight.
This role is ideal for someone who sits at the intersection of technology and curiosity: an engineer who enjoys solving complex backend challenges, but is equally motivated by what the data represents in the real world — species, habitats, and ecosystems.
You’ll thrive here if you:
- enjoy building robust, scalable backend systems
- like working with large, imperfect, real-world datasets
- are curious about data and want to understand the story it tells, not just process it
- are excited to learn new technologies and domains as the platform evolves
- want your work to contribute to something tangible and meaningful
An interest in ecology — particularly bioacoustics, conservation, or bat surveying — is highly desirable. You don’t need to be an expert, but you should be genuinely interested in engaging with the domain and growing your understanding over time.
What You’ll Be Doing
- Designing and building Python-based backend services and APIs
- Developing and maintaining data ingestion and processing pipelines
- Working with large-scale environmental datasets (audio + derived detections)
- Improving performance, scalability, and reliability of our platform
- Collaborating with ML workflows (e.g. integrating model outputs into production systems)
- Contributing to database design and data modelling across multiple storage systems
- Exploring and validating data to support product and scientific use cases
Skills & Experience
- Strong experience in Python backend development (e.g. FastAPI, Flask, similar)
- Solid understanding of APIs and service-oriented architecture
- Practical experience with SQL and databases (PostgreSQL)
- Comfortable working with data pipelines and data processing workflows
- Ability to work independently in a small team and take ownership of features
Desirable
- Exposure to ecology, environmental science, or biodiversity monitoring
- Experience with bat surveying, bioacoustics, or wildlife data
- Familiarity with AWS or cloud-native architectures
- Experience with NoSQL databases (e.g. DynamoDB, MongoDB)
- Exposure to data analytics or exploratory data work (e.g. Pandas, PySpark)
- Experience working with ML pipelines or model outputs
- Some experience in Web framework would be beneficial but not essential
Why Join
- Work on technology with real environmental impact
- Be part of a small, highly technical team with significant ownership
- Help shape a platform operating at the intersection of AI, ecology, and big data
- Opportunity to influence both product and technical direction
We particularly welcome candidates from non-traditional backgrounds or with a strong personal interest in nature and conservation and a passion for technology.