Lead Backend Engineer (Java/Python) at TheNielsenCompany

Gracenote is the content business unit of Nielsen that powers the world of media entertainment. Our metadata solutions help media and entertainment companies around the world deliver personalized content search and discovery, connecting audiences with the content they love. We are at the intersection of people and media entertainment. With our cutting-edge technology and solutions, we help audiences easily find TV shows, movies, music, and sports across multiple platforms. As the world leader in entertainment data and services, we power the world’s top streaming platforms, cable and satellite TV providers, media companies, consumer electronics manufacturers, music services, and automakers to navigate and succeed in the competitive streaming world. Our metadata entertainment solutions have a global footprint of 80+ countries, 100K+ channels and catalogs, 70+ sports, and 100M+ music tracks, all across 35 languages. Job Purpose : • Develop and enhance our flagship Video metadata software solutions. • Design applications with a Platform-first mentality where scale, consistency, and reliability are at the core of every decision. Job Description : As a Lead Engineer, you will be responsible for leading the designing, developing, and maintaining high-quality software applications. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams to define, design, and ship new features, while also ensuring the performance, quality, and responsiveness of applications. In addition, you will mentor and guide junior engineers. Required Experience and Skills : • Experience in designing, developing, and scaling enterprise-grade applications, including developing solutions from scratch. • Exposure to various backend and front-end technologies including Java and JavaScript. • Willing to work on legacy stacks and curious to automate old systems. • Experience in building ETL/ELT processes to ingest data from various sources (APIs, databases, files, etc.). • Optimize existing data pipelines for performance, cost, and reliability. • Proficiency in databases, including schema design, for large-scale applications, with mandatory experience in both SQL, NoSQL, Vector datastores. • SQL examples: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle • NoSQL examples: MongoDB, Cassandra, Redis, DynamoDB, Elastic Search, Neo4j • Vector datastore examples: Pinecone, Pgvector, Milvus, Redis Vector Similarity • Proven experience in leading and mentoring a team of engineers ensuring successful project delivery. • In-depth knowledge and proficiency of messaging queue concepts. Key Responsibilities : • Lead design, develop, and maintain scalable and robust web applications and data pipelines. • Strong expertise in Java/Python for backend development, data processing, and API implementation. • Experience in designing, developing, and deploying agentic workflows and complex AI/LLM orchestration systems (e.g., LangGraph, LangChain, crewAI) desirable. • Collaborate with product managers, designers, and other engineers to gather requirements and translate them into technical specifications. • Write clean, maintainable, and efficient code following best practices and coding standards. • Conduct code reviews ensuring adherence to best practices and high coding standards, and provide constructive feedback to team members. • Troubleshoot and debug applications to optimize performance and resolve issues. • Participate in the full software development lifecycle, including planning, development, testing, and deployment. • Participate in architectural discussions and decision-making processes to shape the future of our technology stack. • Stay up-to-date with emerging technologies and industry trends and evaluate their potential impact on our products and services. • Contribute to the development and improvement of engineering processes, tools, and methodologies. • Mentor and guide junior engineers, fostering a culture of learning and collaboration within the team.