Principal Distributed Systems Engineer (Escrow-Tech)

Principal Distributed Systems Engineer (Escrow-Tech)

About the Role

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.

You will work across algorithmic optimisation, Python backend engineering, PostgreSQL security, cryptography, Kubernetes/k3s and edge orchestration.

Key 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.

• 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