Principal Distributed Systems Engineer

Principal Distributed Systems Engineer

Overview

The successful candidate will help architect and own the systems behind a sovereign cloud and distributed edge compute network, including a compute workload exchange designed to manage concurrent resource bids, infrastructure constraints, billing records and distributed compute capacity.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement a multi-threaded Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) optimisation engine capable of evaluating compute resource bids against constraints such as power, thermal limits, SLA priorities, processor states and cooling capacity.
• Build an append-only, tamper-evident transaction ledger using SHA-256 hash chaining to track resource allocation, billing events and energy-curtailment credits, with integrity verification and tamper-detection mechanisms.
• Design and deploy advanced PostgreSQL Row-Level Security (RLS) policies to enforce strict multi-tenant data isolation at the database layer, supported by access-validation middleware and security testing.
• Develop the orchestration backend that aggregates distributed edge compute nodes, identifies available capacity and coordinates workload distribution, encryption, execution and result return across the network.
• During the final execution phase, work with the local development team in Lagos to deploy production-ready systems, conduct load testing and lead structured architectural handover sessions.

Requirements

• Strong experience in distributed systems and high-throughput backend architecture.
• Python backend engineering and performance-critical data pipelines experience.
• Advanced PostgreSQL and multi-tenant database architecture experience.
• Experience with Kubernetes, k3s, Docker and cloud infrastructure.
• Experience with MILP and mathematical optimisation.
• Experience in quantitative engineering, operational research or resource allocation.
• Experience with cryptographic and tamper-evident data structures.
• Knowledge of SHA-256 and data-integrity verification.
• Experience with distributed edge/IoT orchestration.
• Experience with MQTT and IoT data pipelines.
• Technical documentation and architecture handover experience.
• Experience in quantitative trading infrastructure, operational research platforms, high-throughput fintech systems or large-scale SaaS multi-tenancy is particularly relevant to the role.

How to Apply

• Apply via: Send your CV to [email protected]
• Please include a concise technical portfolio or representative examples of previous work in areas such as MILP/optimisation, distributed backend architecture or multi-tenant database security. Clearly state the role you are applying for in the email subject line.

Additional Details:

• Duration: July 2026 – December 2026
• Reporting: Technical Partner Project Manager
• Potential: Long-term engagement post-launch
• Knowledge Transfer: Weekly 90-minute technical walkthroughs; comprehensive architecture manuals; API, solver and database documentation; in-person knowledge transfer during Lagos-based periods; formal final knowledge-transfer sign-off, requiring the local team to independently build the systems from source.

Key Milestones:

• M1: MILP Solver — Python + C
• M2: Immutable Billing Ledger — SHA-256
• M3: PostgreSQL RLS — Multi-Tenant Isolation
• M4: Edge Aggregator — k3s + Orchestration
• M5: Production Deployment & Handover