Full Stack Software Developer - Engineered Arts

About Engineered Arts

Engineered Arts is the leading manufacturer of full-size humanoid robots used for entertainment, education and communication. With 20 years of hardware and software development, our robots have been sold in over 30 countries worldwide with customers such as NASA, PwC, Meta and many more.

Our Ameca robot is well known as 'the face of AI' and a social media viral success, taking advantage of the generative AI craze. Along with our ultra-realistic Mesmer range of animated figures, our robots continue to surprise and excite visitors at museums, theme parks, visitor attractions and trade shows, as well as aid leading universities with AI and robotics research. Our robots are poised to break into the future mega-expansion service robot segment, with applications such as front of house, receptions, check-in desks, information points and PoS.

We are a team of dedicated Developers and creatives striving to develop the very best experiences for our customers. Our internal motto is 'Be Wow' — everything we do is fun, entertaining or surprising to encounter.

About You

You're a mid-to-senior full stack developer with a strong backend focus who thrives building reliable, scalable cloud software. You've shipped production features across APIs, data layers, and AI pipelines — and you know what it takes to build services that hold up under real-world conditions. You bring strong Python skills, deep comfort with Django and GraphQL, and the debugging instincts to trace a problem across backend layers, services, and integrations.

You care about architecture, but you're pragmatic — you understand that systems powering physical products demand robustness, repeatability, and thoughtful failure modes, not just elegant abstractions. You can integrate quickly into a large, mature codebase, deliver value early, and keep quality high even as scope evolves. You're energised by ambiguity, patient with complexity, and motivated by the moment a customer's robot does something that genuinely creates wonder in the real world.

What You'll Do and How You'll Have an Impact

• Design, implement, and evolve GraphQL APIs and Python/Django backend services, writing clean, tested, and scalable code across API and data layers
• Integrate and productise LLMs and AI pipelines — including streaming, tool calling, RAG/knowledge bases, and multi-provider TTS/STT — turning ambiguous agent behaviour into clear product contracts with defined schemas, permissions, fallbacks, and observability
• Optimise AI-powered robot experiences for latency, cost, and robustness — building conversational experiences that feel natural on a physical humanoid, not just in a controlled demo environment
• Build and maintain backend services that power fleet configuration, agent behaviour, and realtime telepresence surfaces
• Debug complex backend issues, and proactively improve testability, observability, and maintainability as you go
• Partner with product, UX, DevOps, QA, and embedded engineers to turn requirements into shippable, high-quality designs — providing technical feedback on feasibility, risk, and sequencing
• Coach and support more junior developers; raise the bar for quality across a complex, fast-moving codebase

What We're Looking For

• Mid-to-senior experience shipping production software as a full stack developer, with clear backend strength
• Strong Python backend experience; Django strongly preferred, or clear transferable experience
• Experience designing and consuming GraphQL APIs — not only REST
• Comfortable working on Linux systems, debugging remote services, and navigating logs, processes, and packaging/deploy workflows
• Solid Git and collaborative development practices; writes tested, maintainable code and understands CI/CD
• Working knowledge of relational databases (PostgreSQL preferred)
• Clear communication and collaboration with product, design, and other disciplines

Our Stack

• Frontend: TypeScript, React, GraphQL, Material-UI 
• Backend: Python, Django, PostgreSQL, WebSockets 
• On-robot / AI: Async Python on Linux, LLM/TTS/STT integrations, RAG 
• Delivery: Docker, Kubernetes, GitLab CI

Strong fundamentals and the ability to ramp into an existing codebase matter more than having used every tool before.

Nice to Have

• React / TypeScript frontend exposure — familiarity with how backend APIs are consumed in the UI is a plus
• Production experience with LLMs and related systems: streaming, tool/function calling, RAG/knowledge bases, multi-provider TTS/STT, and latency/cost trade-offs
• Async/event-driven systems experience — asyncio, WebSockets, pub/sub messaging such as NATS or equivalents
• Realtime experience — WebRTC, media/signalling pipelines, or other latency-sensitive architectures
• Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud platforms (AWS or similar)
• Strong debugging and observability habits — structured logs, metrics, and tracing
• C++ and/or Rust
• Prior experience in robotics, human–robot interaction, conversational agents, or MCP/tool-platform integrations
• OpenTelemetry or similar production telemetry experience

At AppDirect, we believe that innovation thrives in an environment that houses diversity of excellence, experience and thought. We respect each AppDirector as their own fingerprint; unique with no one alike. We foster an environment of inclusion without regard to race, religion, age, sexual orientation, or gender identity enabling AppDirectors to embrace their uniqueness to do their best work. As such, we strongly encourage applications from Indigenous peoples, racialized people, people with disabilities, people from gender and sexually diverse communities, and/or people with intersectional identities.

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