Software developer / devops engineer

Sekond is seeking collaborative, supportive, nice software professionals to join us and help build the core product—and culture—of our young startup in Boston. Please only apply if you can work in person in Boston and have work authorization for the US. See fine print below for more details.

As a Software Developer & Platform Engineer you’ll join our small team and help us build-out the definitive source of news, information, and data about the private equity industry. No longer just for institutional investors, this asset class is increasingly being offered to individual investors, both directly and indirectly (eg, new legislation opens up private equity investments to 401k funds). This is a complex, convoluted, poorly documented world. We’ll be changing that, and it all starts with the efficient flow and interpretation of data.

We’re also creating multiple customer-facing web applications, and using a number of advanced AI/ML tools to find and capture data from a wide array of disparate sources.

In this earliest phase, most days we will be working together in a small, tight-knit team— on site in an office in Boston’s Seaport district.

Job Description

This is a hybrid position: primarily a Backend Developer, but also operating as the lead for all things Platform Engineering. Early on there will be more platform engineering and dev/ops, but we build-out our ideal platform (under your guidance!) we’ll likely move into a phase where there are equal parts backend dev and devops. Both roles will require facility and experience working with multiple systems, connecting them, scaling them, etc.

Responsibilities:

• Platform Dev and DevOps : automation, monitoring, scaling our capacity to acquire and interpret data. Ensure the reliable and secure flow of data from disparate sources into our data stores, and—with the dev team—its timely processing/refining/normalization into our core internal data structures
• Requires expertise in the various AWS tools that facilitate these operations. These could include RDS, EC2, Lambda, CloudWatch, DocumentDB, Elasticache, Data Pipeline, Step Functions, EventBridge, Kinesis, Batch, etc., however, you’ll be helping choose which tools we bring to bear on our operation
• See to the security of all of our systems: work with the team to ensure SOC2 & GDPA compliance, and maintain up to date reports & certifications
• Ensure uptime for customer-facing applications
• CI/CD pipelines via Github Actions, Jenkins, etc.
• Backend web development, primarily in Python:
• Our backend applications are about finding, transforming, and interpreting data, so data cleaning, manipulation, analysis are key. We currently use SQLAlchemy ORM but there is room for other data-facing tools. We also use a broad range of python’s many data-focused libraries (Pandas/Polars, NumPy, SciPy, etc.). We are constantly exploring use of—and evaluating— other tools, including 3rd party services (Snowflake, et al)
• Much of our backend development involves a data processing pipeline, currently orchestrated using Celery. We might also move toward 3rd party pipeline tools and strategies, and our platform engineering specialist would be critical in the evaluation of current and future data pipeline projects.
• Experience building web applications in python (using, eg, FastAPI or Flask) preferred
• AI / Machine Learning : any direct experience with one or more ML/AI techniques will be an asset, as we will be using and building various AI tools. Experience using LLMs via API and crafting dynamic prompts would be relevant
• Database design, optimization, management: we’re using both relational (eg Postgres) and document-based (eg Mongo) DBs. We don’t need a DBA but understanding how best to structure data sources for various use-cases is important for our projects

We’re building the core of the business together , from the product to the code to the culture. Being thoughtful about how we spend our funding, our time, and our effort is a team sport for us. Your input is critical to this process. You will have agency.

If you can help us and you like the sound of the work and the environment described above, please get in touch. If you can give us an indication that you’ve actually read this whole posting, that will help your resume filter to the top!

You deserve to love your job and the culture in which you work. Join us and help shape it!

About Sekond

Sekond is a Boston based fintech startup with the mission to accelerate liquidity in the private markets. Our founders are the former CEO and CTO of another Boston fintech startup, also focused on private equity, which made a successful exit in 2021.

No recruiters or agencies , please. Email your resume to [email protected] , and please confirm: that you can start work immediately, in person, in Boston; that you have long-term work authorization for the US; and that you will not now or in the future require employment visa sponsorship.

In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire. Please note that we are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time, or provide any kind of relocation assistance.