Data Engineer - Backend in Southampton

We are using and creating technology to transform operations at sea to enable people and the planet to thrive. We are open-minded and fearless in our approach to innovation and don’t believe in boundaries. We challenge everything and have massive ambitions to drag aging industries into the tech era. We take safety, equality and education very seriously, and our responsibilities don’t stop at our front door. Our business is built on the belief that there’s definitely a more environmentally responsible way to operate at sea. We employ people who share our core values. We expect our people to be courageous, trustworthy, and conscientious, driven by a desire to do the right thing. We strive for excellence, work collaboratively, and are genuinely excited by our work. We offer opportunities for our people to develop beyond their role and span a multitude of disciplines. These are open to all, regardless of background and experience level. Working with us means being part of a team that is harnessing technology and creativity to disrupt a traditional industry. We are not your average workplace.

Ocean Infinity is seeking a skilled and motivated Data Engineer - Backend to join our team. The successful candidate will play a key role in supporting our AI Engineers by building the data services, integrations, and backend components required to bring advanced algorithms into real-world applications. You will work across engineering, product, and AI/ML teams to automate data flows, prototype model-driven services, and connect our AI capabilities to the tools and products used by our end-users every day.

What will you do:

• Build and maintain data integrations between the lakehouse, AI pipelines, and downstream products or user-facing applications.
• Design, develop, and operate backend data services and APIs that expose curated datasets and model outputs to internal and external consumers.
• Implement scalable data pipelines that move, transform, and prepare data for AI engineers, ensuring reliable access to training, inference, and evaluation datasets.
• Prototype and deploy lightweight model services and applications in collaboration with AI Engineers, enabling rapid iteration and early validation of new algorithms and workflows.
• Ensure data quality and reliability, including monitoring, validation, troubleshooting, and performance optimization across services and workflows.
• Collaborate with AI Engineers, SMEs, and product teams to understand integration needs, translate them into technical solutions, and embed them into production services.
• Document system interfaces, data flows, and service contracts, ensuring clear handoffs and smooth adoption across teams.

Who you are:

• A degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, or a related field.
• 3+ years of experience as a Data Engineer, Backend Engineer, or similar role.
• Strong programming skills in Python and proficiency in SQL.
• Experience building and maintaining data pipelines, APIs, or backend services that integrate with data platforms.
• Hands-on experience with workflow orchestration tools (Airflow, Prefect, Flyte).
• Familiarity with SQL/NoSQL systems (e.g., Postgres, MongoDB, Redis).
• Solid understanding of data structures, algorithms, and data modeling.
• Comfortable working with data lake/lakehouse concepts and integrating applications with structured or semi-structured data.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, able to work effectively with AI/ML, product, and platform teams.

Desirable:

• Experience integrating with Delta Lake, data lake storage, or similar cloud data platforms.
• Experience building event-driven or streaming integrations.
• Familiarity with Azure data services (ADLS, ADF, Cosmos, Databricks).
• Experience with CI/CD workflows (Azure Pipelines, GitHub Actions, ArgoCD).
• Experience with containerized services (Kubernetes, ideally AKS).
• Understanding of ML serving patterns, model APIs, or feature preparation workflows.
• Experience with fast-prototyping frameworks for model deployment (e.g., FastAPI, Flask, Triton, BentoML).

Salary: The salary varies for this position as we are recruiting in multiple regional locations and job grades. The salary process is based on skills, abilities, and experience required.

What you can expect:

At Ocean Infinity, we believe in creating equal opportunities for all, celebrating each and everyone’s differences. We are driven by transforming the industry, through our technology, thoughts, behaviours and actions. Being inclusive and respectful to all is fundamental to who we are. It is the right thing to do and enables innovation and creativity to thrive. There is more work to be done, and we know that we aren’t perfect, but our commitment to these values is unwavering. They are central to our mission and the impact we have on the industry, meaning, we cannot live without them.