Early Full-Stack Python Engineer — Strategic Warning AI

About the job

Location: Fully Remote but must have UK/EU work authorization

Type: Full-time contractor, with a path to conversion to salaried role + equity

Reports to: Chief Scientific Officer (until Head of Engineering is hired)

Compensation: $8,000 USD/month contractor rate

Background Screening: Required per client + legal obligations

Anadyr Horizon builds Strategic Warning AI — technology designed to help governments and institutions see crises before they happen and prevent escalation.

This isn’t “yet another stack.”

You’ll be engineering the backbone of a system used by analysts, operators, and real-world decision-makers navigating high-pressure environments.

We’re assembling a founding engineering team — just three people — to take research prototypes and turn them into production systems that actually shape global outcomes.

I built the infrastructure behind a new category of intelligence software, this is that moment.

What You’ll Do

• Build and maintain FastAPI services that power agentic simulations and data pipelines.
• Design PostgreSQL schemas, optimize queries, and manage migrations (SQL proficiency required).
• Deploy and monitor workloads on AWS with CI/CD and infrastructure‑as‑code practices.
• Set up and maintain observability (metrics, logs, traces, error handling) with SLO/SLA thinking and privacy‑safe product analytics/UX telemetry (e.g., PostHog/OpenReplay or Hotjar with strict field masking, consent, and data‑residency controls).
• Collaborate on system design with research and product leads — from concept → prototype → production.
• Contribute to engineering standards: code review, testing, linting, typed Python, and rollback plans.

What You’ll Bring

• Proficient in Python and SQL; strong back‑end engineering fundamentals.
• Experience with Linux and building/consuming APIs.
• Ability to pick up new technologies quickly (e.g., AWS cloud services).
• Docker experience for local development and deployment.
• Strong communication skills and ability to explain technical concepts clearly.
• Familiarity with React and Next.js is a bonus (not a strict requirement).
• Emphasis on strong coding skills and back‑end depth over front‑end specialization.

Must-Have Experience

• 3–5+ years shipping production web applications with clear ownership of features from design to deploy (preferably in small, high‑velocity teams).
• Backend depth in Python: FastAPI (preferred) or Flask, strong async fundamentals, Pydantic/typing, and SQL/PostgreSQL mastery (schema design, indexing, query plans, migrations).
• Frontend capability, not dependency: comfortable building and maintaining React + TypeScript views and UI flows; deep front‑end specialization is not required.
• DevOps proficiency: hands‑on with Docker, CI/CD (e.g., GitHub Actions), and practical AWS (EC2, S3, VPC, IAM basics); able to stand up and monitor services.
• Observability + reliability: metrics, logs, traces (OpenTelemetry/Prometheus/Grafana) and SLO/SLA thinking;
• privacy‑safe product analytics/UX telemetry (e.g., PostHog/OpenReplay or Hotjar with strict field masking, consent, and data‑residency controls).
• Security‑minded habits: least‑privilege IAM, secrets management, auditability, and rollback plans.
• Communication & collaboration: clear written English (PRs/design notes/runbooks), effective remote collaboration during EU time zones, and a bias to ship.

Nice-to-Have

• Infrastructure‑as‑Code (Terraform/CloudFormation), Docker.
• Observability tools (OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana) and SLO/SLA thinking.
• ML serving experience (FastAPI inference endpoints, vector databases, model registries).
• Experience with simulation‑heavy or data‑intensive applications.
• Security & compliance: least‑privilege IAM, secrets management, audit trails, and exposure to SOC‑2/GDPR/data‑residency practices.

Why You’ll Love It Here

You’re joining at the moment before the engineering culture solidifies — which means:

• Early influence: Help shape the engineering stack and team culture from the ground up, we’re moving from prototype to scalable, and your decisions will set the standards we grow on.
• Mission with consequence: Your code helps analysts and policymakers prevent crises, not react to them.
• Serious craft: We write typed Python, measure twice before shipping, and build systems meant to last.
• Autonomy & trust: Minimal bureaucracy, direct access to founders, rapid iteration.

Weekly Cadence (What a typical week looks like)

• Periodic stand‑up (≈15 minutes, late afternoon/evening CET): crisp sync across engineering, data, product, and design.
• Deep work blocks: uninterrupted time for building, testing, and writing design notes.
• Weekly engineering planning (60–90 minutes) : refine priorities, confirm acceptance criteria, and set measurable outcomes (e.g., p95 targets, migration milestones).
• Release/retro touchpoints: check what shipped, what moved metrics, and capture learnings into runbooks and tech‑debt tickets.

Hiring Process

• Short take‑home or working session (real task, no algorithm puzzles)
• 60 min technical conversation (Python, SQL, architecture)
• Founder conversation
• Offer

Why Join Now

• You’ll be helping build the decision engine we wish existed during the Cuban Missile Crisis — software designed to surface escalation pathways before they become headlines.
• You’ll join the team that anticipated Ukraine’s conflict dynamics early and now partners with organizations operating in the world’s highest‑stakes environments.
• You’ll ship quickly, learn relentlessly, and make an outsized impact on a deep‑tech system built for analysts and policymakers who cannot afford to be surprised.

Anadyr Culture

We move fast. We operate as one aligned team.

If you’re looking for low stakes or a 9–5 buffer — this isn’t it.

If you thrive on responsibility, clarity, trust, and momentum, you’ll do the best work of your career here.

You’ll help shape the engineering culture, product experience, and norms of a deep‑tech company rooted in our values:

• Integrity — we do what we say.
• Amity — we win through trust and collaboration.
• Excellence — we build with precision and purpose.