About the role
At Kpler, we are dedicated to helping our clients navigate complex markets with ease. By simplifying global trade information and providing valuable insights, we empower organisations to make informed decisions in commodities, energy, and maritime sectors.
Since our founding in 2014, we have focused on delivering top-tier intelligence through user-friendly platforms. Our team of over 850 experts from 69 countries works tirelessly to transform intricate data into actionable strategies, ensuring our clients stay ahead in a dynamic market landscape. Join us to leverage cutting-edge innovation for impactful results and experience unparalleled support on your journey to success.
About the Role
As a Senior Software Engineer within our Commodities tribe, you will lead the end-to-end integration of US inland waterway barge data into Kpler’s global cargo intelligence platform. Operating under a "you build it, you run it" philosophy, you will design robust ingestion paths, stream real-time data using Kafka, and connect barge movement models directly to our customer-facing surfaces. This role carries genuine design authority, empowering you to solve complex entity resolution problems while mentoring peers and elevating technical craft across our crews.
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Lead end-to-end integration architecture: Drive the full engineering lifecycle—from external feed ingestion and domain modeling to streaming, entity resolution, and UI distribution.
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Design robust ingestion & entity-resolution systems: Map incoming barge data onto Kpler reference data (vessels, zones, installations, products) using existing Elasticsearch and PostgreSQL matching patterns.
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Build scalable Kafka streaming pipelines: Construct event-driven contracts, schemas (Avro), deduplication mechanisms, and dead-letter queue replays with Python and Scala.
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Deliver data across customer surfaces: Surface integrated barge data cleanly across Elasticsearch read models, external APIs, data warehouse feeds, and the Kpler Terminal (TypeScript/Vue).
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Champion production quality & observability: Maintain full operational ownership of your services, setting SLOs, participating in on-call rotations, and driving post-incident improvements.
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Ensure data integrity & analyst alignment: Validate external feeds and integrate human-in-the-loop analyst workflows so corrections seamlessly apply to barge movements.
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Mentor and elevate engineering craft: Guide and mentor crew members, document architectural designs, and actively contribute to decomposing legacy estates into event-driven services.
What you'll need (Must-haves)
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Production data engineering experience: ~5+ years of experience designing, operating, and maintaining data-intensive production systems with full ownership.
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Advanced Python & SQL expertise: Proven ability to build clean, well-bounded services within large, complex, and evolving codebases.
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Event-driven streaming proficiency: Hands-on experience with Kafka streaming in production, including schema management (Avro/Schema Registry), deduplication, and replay patterns.
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Third-party integration & entity resolution: Demonstrated background integrating external data feeds, managing schema mapping, and building data quality monitoring frameworks.
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Operational mindset: Direct experience managing production observability, writing documentation, and resolving incidents in a distributed system environment.
Nice-to-haves
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Functional programming & Scala: Experience or familiarity with Scala (Kafka Streams) or a track record of rapidly mastering new languages.
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Geospatial & domain knowledge: Familiarity with geospatial data tools (PostGIS) or exposure to maritime, logistics, or commodities domains.
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Modern data stack exposure: Experience with Elasticsearch, Airflow, Snowflake/lakehouse table formats, Kubernetes, and GitOps deployments.
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UI/Frontend collaboration: Working knowledge of TypeScript or Vue to collaborate on user-facing terminal features.
We are a dynamic company dedicated to nurturing connections and innovating solutions to tackle market challenges head-on. If you thrive on customer satisfaction and turning ideas into reality, then you’ve found your ideal destination. Are you ready to embark on this exciting journey with us?
We make things happen
We act decisively and with purpose, going the extra mile.
We build together
We foster relationships and develop creative solutions to address market challenges.
We are here to help
We are accessible and supportive to colleagues and clients with a friendly approach.
Our People Pledge
Don’t meet every single requirement? Research shows that women and people of color are less likely than others to apply if they feel like they don’t match 100% of the job requirements. Don’t let the confidence gap stand in your way, we’d love to hear from you! We understand that experience comes in many different forms and are dedicated to adding new perspectives to the team.
Kpler is committed to providing a fair, inclusive and diverse work-environment. We believe that different perspectives lead to better ideas, and better ideas allow us to better understand the needs and interests of our diverse, global community. We welcome people of different backgrounds, experiences, abilities and perspectives and are an equal opportunity employer.
By applying, I confirm that I have read and accept the Staff Privacy Notice
About Kpler
Kpler is a leading subscription-based data and analytics platform delivering real-time market intelligence for diverse commodities and their transportation.
Since its inception in 2014, Kpler has helped shake up the industry by introducing the first cargo-tracking solution for the thriving LNG market. Today, its coverage spans over 40 markets, encompassing liquids, dry bulk, freight, and inventories.
To bolster its offerings and propel growth, Kpler strategically pursued mergers and acquisitions, acquiring ClipperData (2021) and JBC Energy (2022), solidifying its position in the commodity and data sectors. Furthermore, the acquisition of Core-e (2022) enabled Kpler to enter the European power market.
In 2023, Kpler made significant strides by acquiring two leading ship tracking and maritime analytics providers, MarineTraffic and FleetMon, to further establish its dominance in the global trade intelligence market.
These strategic acquisitions open up new avenues for developing powerful data analytics solutions that deliver impressive results, presented in a simple and user-friendly manner to the market.
Kpler currently employs more than 500 people across the world.
Other roles at Kpler
Job details
Location
Athens, Greece
Funding
Total raised
$200M
Last stage
Growth
Investors
Founders
What happens next.
No applications, no recruiter spam. Just the intro.
Confirm the fit
A few questions to make sure this role is the right shape for you. Two minutes.
I pitch you to the company
I write the intro, send it to the founder, and handle the back-and-forth.
A meeting lands on your calendar
If they’re a yes, I book the chat. You show up — that’s the whole job-hunt.
