Staff Software Engineer (Python, React, AWS)

Climate X is seeking a Staff Software Engineer (Python, React, AWS) to lead technical initiatives across their climate adaptation platforms, Spectra and Adapt. The role involves architecting full-stack solutions, mentoring team members, and driving technical strategy. The company focuses on innovative climate risk management, advocating for diversity and collaboration. This position is fully remote, allowing candidates to work from anywhere.
Staff Software (Full Stack) Engineer

About Us

Climate X is a purpose-driven climate adaptation data company set to revolutionise how the world manages assets, property, and infrastructure.

We apply cutting-edge, peer-reviewed science to help prevent the worst impacts of climate change. Our innovative approach combines climate projections, remote sensing observations, and sophisticated modelling to project the frequency and severity of physical climate risks such as floods, subsidence, and storms.

Our flagship SaaS platform, Spectra, combined with our Adapt solution, provides a comprehensive climate risk and adaptation planning toolkit. Spectra enables financial institutions and real estate firms to explore future climate pathways and:
• Identify potential property and company asset damage from severe weather events
• Assess the impact of climate risks on asset valuations
• Build climate resilience and make data-driven investment and lending decisions
• Generate detailed physical risk ratings and climate-adjusted Value at Risk (cVaR) forecasts through 2100
• Analyse risks at unprecedented granularity (down to 10x10m in urban areas)

Our Adapt platform builds on Spectra's foundation to:
• Transform risk insights into actionable adaptation strategies
• Provide structured frameworks for climate adaptation planning
• Enable vulnerability assessments and thresholds analysis
• Support organizations in implementing and monitoring adaptation measures

We advocate diversity with our founders, team, and investors from various backgrounds. We're not building just a team but a place of innovation where problem-solving and fun coexist to address the most significant challenge our society faces today.

The Impact You'll Own

As Staff Engineer, you will provide technical leadership across our product suite, including Spectra, Adapt, and our upcoming Spectra for Corporates platform. Working alongside two other technical leads and reporting to the Director of Engineering, you'll shape the technical direction of our enterprise solutions while maintaining hands-on involvement in development.

Your time will be thoughtfully balanced between strategic technical leadership and hands-on development. While the majority of your focus will be dedicated to complex technical challenges and system architecture, you'll invest meaningful time in mentoring and managing select team members and providing technical oversight that elevates our entire engineering organisation.

Key Responsibilities:

- Architect and implement scalable full-stack solutions handling complex, semi-structured data streams

- Design and evolve our enterprise-level server-side frameworks for efficient data processing and analysis

- Lead technical design reviews and establish best practices across our engineering teams

- Provide technical mentorship and guidance to team members while fostering a culture of engineering excellence

- Drive technical strategy for integration between our Spectra, Adapt, and Carta platforms

- Collaborate with data scientists and researchers to optimize our climate risk models for production environments

- Champion scalable architecture decisions that support our growing user base and expanding feature set

Essential Skills
• *Technical Requirements:**

- Strong Python development experience, with expertise in building scalable backend services and APIs

- Proven experience with modern React development, including state management and component architecture

- Proven track record of AWS / Cloud-based application architecture and development

- Advanced knowledge of PostgreSQL or similar relational databases

- Experience building data pipelines and working with semi-structured/unstructured data

- Strong background in startup environments with rapid iteration and scaling challenges
• *Leadership Requirements:**

- Previous experience mentoring, coaching, or leading engineering teams, either formally or informally

- Demonstrated ability to influence technical decisions across multiple teams

- Excellence in communicating complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders

- Track record of successfully delivering large-scale technical projects

- Experience in technical planning and roadmap development

- Ability to balance technical debt with delivery priorities

- Strong track record of building consensus across engineering teams

- Experience in conducting technical interviews and growing engineering teams

- Proven ability to develop and maintain engineering best practices and documentation

Desirable Skills

- Advanced understanding of Python numerical libraries and application frameworks

- Experience developing GIS applications using Python or JavaScript

- Knowledge of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and geospatial-optimised databases

- Experience with ArcGIS and/or QGIS and the GDAL/OGR library

- Background in environmental data analysis and visualization

- Experience working with climate science or environmental datasets

- Previous exposure to financial risk modelling or similar quantitative domains

- Experience with real-time data processing and analytics platforms

Benefits

🌍 Contribute to a B-Corp certified business making purposeful impact related to climate change

💡 Monthly training & conference budget to help you upskill and develop your career (£1,000 per year)

📈 Opportunities to advance: 6 monthly appraisals and 12 monthly pay reviews with dedicated career development frameworks

💰 Pension contribution scheme

🏡 Flexible hours and hybrid working (3 days/week in office; core hours 10am-4pm)

🏥 Mental Health and Wellbeing support via Oliva

🏖 36.5 days total holiday (25 days annual leave, plus Bank Holidays, annual office closure over Christmas and New Year, and a half day on your birthday)

🏏 Optional quarterly socials, dinners, and fun nights out

🥐 A fully stocked supply of snacks, fruit, and refreshments for the days when you are in the office

🚴 Cycle to work scheme via Gogeta

🍼 Enhanced maternity and paternity

🐶 Pawternity (2 weeks)

🐕 Dog friendly office (official residence of Alfie, Chief Mischief Officer)

Equal Opportunities

Climate X are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds.