Senior Software Engineer

Polaron (Headquarters: London)

TypeScript React Next.js Express Prisma Python PyTorch PostgreSQL Docker Kubernetes AWS Terraform Generative AI Materials Science Backend Engineer Full Stack Full Stack Engineer Back End Engineer Front End Engineer Staff Engineer

Polaron is an Imperial College London spinout company using generative AI to revolutionize materials science. Our technology bridges the gap between process (how materials are made) and performance (how materials behave), enabling materials designers to leverage state-of-the-art AI techniques in their daily work. We are a small, well-funded team that recently won the UK Government's inaugural Manchester Prize for AI innovation and public good. Our mission is to accelerate the design of advanced materials for applications such as batteries, wind turbines, and other sustainable technologies.

As a Senior Software Engineer at Polaron, you will play a key role in developing and scaling our platform for materials design. You will work on challenging projects that involve scaling our canvas-based frontend to handle images with resolutions beyond 10k x 10k, intelligently autoscaling our GPU cluster in response to customer demand, and building a public-facing API in addition to our web-based interface. This role requires a blend of technical expertise, leadership, and collaboration to drive innovation and excellence.

Key responsibilities include:
- Designing and implementing scalable backend services using TypeScript, Express, and Prisma
- Building and maintaining high-performance databases with PostgreSQL and optimizing queries
- Containerizing applications with Docker and managing deployments with Kubernetes
- Developing and deploying machine learning models using Python and PyTorch
- Working with cloud infrastructure on AWS, including storage, compute, and networking
- Collaborating with cross-functional teams to deliver features that meet customer needs
- Mentoring junior engineers and contributing to architectural decisions
- Ensuring system reliability, security, and performance through best practices

To succeed in this role, you should have:
- 8+ years of professional software engineering experience
- Proficiency in TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, and SQL
- Strong expertise in building concurrent and distributed systems
- Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure)
- Deep understanding of microservices architecture and API design
- Familiarity with containerization, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure-as-code
- Excellent problem-solving skills and attention to detail
- A track record of delivering complex features on time
- Passion for generative AI and materials science
- Experience mentoring and leading technical teams