About Us
There are millions of independent utility networks around the world still running on spreadsheets, clipboards and countless manual hours. We are building the technology platform to change that, bringing these networks into the digital age. From farm cooperatives in Zambia to entire cities in Kenya, our platform helps network owners monitor consumption in real time, bill accurately, give customers a modern digital experience and integrate clean energy sources and services.
At Network Nation, we take a contrarian view. While the energy tech sector chases big utilities in developed markets, we focus on the overlooked and underserved: independent networks and emerging markets that no one else is helping. We believe in building simple, no-nonsense technology to solve real problems. By doing so, we are digitising infrastructure and enabling clean energy for millions of families and businesses worldwide.
The Opportunity
We're looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to build the core systems that power our platform. As our first dedicated backend engineer working alongside our Head of Software Engineering, you'll have significant ownership over our architecture and technical direction.
This role sits at the intersection of hardware and software. You'll be handling streams of real-time data from our proprietary IoT meters, building robust APIs for multiple frontend applications, processing payments at scale, and collaborating closely with our IoT team to design efficient data pipelines. The technical challenges are real and varied — from high-throughput data ingestion to complex billing logic across different network types and markets.
What You'll Do
- Build and scale APIs that power our consumer app, landlord dashboard, and billing platform
- Design and implement systems to ingest, process, and store massive volumes of real-time meter data
- Collaborate with our IoT team to build efficient data pipelines from hardware to application
- Develop billing and payment processing systems that handle complex tariff structures across multiple markets
- Design database schemas and queries that perform well at scale
- Build background jobs and workers for data aggregation, billing runs, and notifications
- Ensure data integrity, security, and reliability across all backend systems
- Work with frontend engineers to design clean, efficient APIs
- Build both human and AI interfaces to the backend systems
- Influence technical architecture and AI first engineering practices as the team grows
What We're Looking For
- Proven experience building production systems for large numbers of business and personal users
- Curious about the domain, willing to learn the details, and able to turn complex ideas into clear explanations and practical solutions
- Strong proficiency with Python and experience with FastAPI or similar frameworks (Flask, Django)
- Experience designing and building RESTful APIs that scale
- Proven ability to handle high-volume data ingestion and processing
- Understanding of distributed systems, async processing, and background job queues
- Experience with payment processing and financial transactions is a strong plus
- A bias for simplicity and pragmatism — we value solving problems cleanly over chasing shiny tools
- Able to leverage modern AI development tools productively, while applying strong engineering judgement to keep systems simple, maintainable and robust
- Comfortable taking ownership and making architectural decisions
- Collaborative: enjoys working with IoT engineers, frontend developers, and product teams
- Happy to move fast, get hands dirty, and solve problems wherever needed
- Available to start as soon as possible
Why Join Us
- First dedicated backend engineer → massive ownership and impact
- Work directly with founding team to shape our technical foundation
- Work with a modern AI-powered dev toolchain designed to help you build and ship features quickly
- Technical variety: real-time data systems, payment processing, multi-tenant architecture, IoT integration
- Room to grow: this is a great opportunity to take on more ownership and leadership as the team expands
- Startup velocity: ship features rapidly and see immediate impact on real customers
- Competitive salary [£75k-£125k] and meaningful equity as an early technical hire
- Mission-driven work bringing clean energy services to underserved markets
How to Apply
Send your CV and a brief paragraph about why you're interested in this role to jennifer@networknation.tech