Senior Backend Engineer (Python / Django)

About the Role

Limo, a Saudi ride-hailing platform expanding across the Kingdom, is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer (Python / Django). This part-time position is based in Jeddah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia. The role involves taking hands-on ownership of backend development, code quality, architecture, and production infrastructure to support growing demand, reliable real-time dispatching, and nationwide expansion. This is a highly technical engineering position requiring an experienced developer capable of deep work within an existing codebase, reviewing other developers' work, troubleshooting complex production issues, and making independent technical decisions.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead hands-on development, maintenance, and optimization of Limo's Python/Django backend, including writing, debugging, reviewing, and optimizing production-level code.
• Design, develop, and maintain REST APIs and backend services for Android and iOS applications.
• Review pull requests, enforcing coding standards, security, maintainability, and performance, and guiding other developers through technical decisions and code reviews.
• Improve backend architecture to support increasing users, drivers, concurrent requests, and transactions, optimizing Django ORM, SQL queries, database transactions, indexing, and connection management.
• Develop and maintain backend services for ride requests, driver availability, rider-driver matching, and trip lifecycle management, including troubleshooting dispatch algorithms and working with geolocation features.
• Manage and optimize production backend infrastructure on Google Cloud Platform (GCP), troubleshooting application servers, networking, deployments, and monitoring infrastructure health.
• Maintain and optimize MySQL databases, queries, and indexes, implementing and troubleshooting Redis caching and distributed-system patterns.
• Troubleshoot backend integrations with Android (Kotlin) and iOS (Swift) applications, investigating API integration, authentication, data synchronization, and push notification issues.

Required Qualifications

• At least 8 years of professional software development experience, including substantial backend engineering experience.
• Strong Python and Django expertise, including Django ORM, middleware, authentication, permissions, migrations, transactions, and performance optimization.
• Extensive experience designing, developing, and troubleshooting REST APIs.
• Strong MySQL and SQL skills, including query optimization, indexing, database locking, and transaction management.
• Practical experience with Redis, caching, queues, background jobs, and asynchronous processing.
• Experience deploying and maintaining production systems on Google Cloud Platform or a comparable cloud environment.
• Ability to independently read, debug, review, and improve complex existing codebases.
• Experience diagnosing production incidents and implementing reliable technical solutions.
• Strong understanding of application security, software architecture, scalability, and performance.
• Experience with Git, pull requests, automated testing, Docker, CI/CD, and production deployments.
• Ability to make independent technical decisions and provide hands-on technical leadership.
• Strong English communication skills.

Preferred Industry and Technical Experience

• Experience with ride-hailing and on-demand platforms, geolocation and mapping, and real-time dispatch systems.
• Familiarity with high-concurrency systems and real-time communication technologies.
• Experience with GCP, Cloudflare, DNS, CDN, WAF, networking, monitoring, and production security.
• Troubleshooting backend integrations with Kotlin-based Android and Swift-based iOS applications.

Application Process

Candidates should submit their CV along with a brief summary detailing their experience with production systems developed or maintained using Python and Django, MySQL, Redis, Google Cloud, and backend scalability. Please also include a challenging production issue personally investigated and resolved, and any experience with geolocation, real-time dispatching, ride-hailing, or similar high-volume platforms.