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.