(Senior) Backend Engineer — Trading & Asset Optimization

(SENIOR) BACKEND ENGINEER — TRADING & ASSET OPTIMIZATION WHY NOW European energy costs run 2× those in the US and China. Electricity demand is on track to double by 2050. Volatility and complexity aren't temporary — they are structural. trawa is building the solution: the first integrated B2B energy platform that bundles procurement, energy management, and flexibility steering into one product. Supply, Manage, Flex — together they unlock up to 30% in recurring electricity cost savings, while shifting companies onto renewable energy. We are the fastest-growing B2B energy platform in Europe — active in Germany and Austria today, expanding to a third market in 2027. The window is open, and we intend to own it. ABOUT TRAWA trawa is based in Berlin with ~100 FTE, ~30 of whom work in Product & Tech. We have raised over €35M to date — including a €24M Series A in May 2025 — backed by Balderton, Headline, Speedinvest, AENU, Magnetic, and Tiny VC. All three founders are on board and fully committed to building the utility of the future. ABOUT THE ROLE You'll join the team that owns energy trading and asset optimization at trawa - the engine that turns market signals and live asset data into smart, automated decisions. It's a data-intensive, high-stakes part of trawa's tech platform where good engineering directly moves the numbers that matter. We're looking for someone who loves building complex systems, takes real ownership of what they ship, and makes the people around them better. You'll shape architecture, drive initiatives end-to-end, and help define how the team builds. WHAT YOU'LL WORK ON - Designing and building the backend systems behind our trading and asset-optimization platform. The services, data flows, and logic that need to be both fast and dependable. - Owning initiatives end to end: gathering requirements with product and trading colleagues, shaping the approach, and rolling it out iteratively. - Working at the intersection of backend and data - modeling and moving data so it's reliable, explorable, and useful to the people who depend on it, including our data scientists and quantitative traders. - Raising the bar on quality, observability, and how we reason about correctness in a system where mistakes are expensive. - Operating and maintaining what we build. We stay with our systems after launch: keeping them healthy in production, learning from how they behave, and improving them over time. Our backend is Python-based: we run on AWS with Terraform, and build with FastAPI, Pydantic, and SQLAlchemy. Having worked in this stack is a nice bonus, but not a requirement. YOUR FIRST 90 DAYS First 6 Weeks - Getting Oriented - Get up to speed on the trading and asset-optimization systems, our Python/AWS stack (FastAPI, Pydantic, SQLAlchemy, Terraform), and how market and asset data flows through the platform - Ship your first fixes and small improvements to get familiar with the codebase, our review process, and how we operate in production - Build relationships with product, data science, and quantitative trading colleagues to understand priorities and how decisions get made By Month 3 - Building Momentum - Take ownership of a meaningful initiative end-to-end: gather requirements, shape the approach, and roll it out iteratively - Contribute architectural input on at least one active design decision in the codebase - Help raise the bar on quality and observability by identifying and addressing a gap in how we reason about correctness in production YOU MIGHT BE A GOOD FIT IF: - You've built complex, data-intensive systems and can point to projects you're proud of. - You've owned a large initiative end-to-end. From fuzzy requirements through an iterative rollout to production - not just the code, but the outcome. - You put the team first: you genuinely enjoy collaborating with people around you and you'd rather support the team than be the lone hero. - You're comfortable making architectural decisions in an evolving codebase. - You're drawn to hard, meaningful problems and want to help shape the next steps of an energy trading and asset-optimization platform. Don't meet every single requirement? At trawa we are building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace. If you are excited about this role but your background doesn't tick every box, apply anyway — you may be exactly the person we are looking for. BONUS POINTS - Experience at the intersection of backend and data engineering - building scalable data pipelines, modeling data to streamline it, and enabling data exploration for other functions. - Exposure to energy, trading, or other real-time, high-stakes domains. WHY JOIN US - 🌍 Real impact - Join one of Europe's fastest-growing B2B energy platforms at a pivotal moment. Your work will directly support systems that help industrial companies cut costs and go green. - 🚀 Early ownership - We give team members responsibility from day one. You won't be shadowing - you'll be shipping. - 🤝 Mentorship that matters - Regular leadership sessions, cross-functional exposure, and engineers who are genuinely invested in your growth. - 📚 Learning culture - Annual learning budget, dedicated development time, and a team that takes knowledge-sharing seriously. - 🌐 Inclusive by design - 15+ nationalities, family-friendly policies, and a genuine commitment to building a place where everyone can do their best work. - 🎁 Solid benefits - A competitive package covering wellbeing, learning, and team experiences.