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Sr. Backend Software Engineer / Java / Python / API / CICD / A.I / RAG / RCA / Glendale

burbank, CA

Hybrid

Contract

$65/hr - $89/hr

Our client is one of the largest and well-known Theme parks and entertainment brands worldwide. They have an average of 200 million+ patrons yearly

They are looking for a contract Senior Backend Software engiineer. This is a hybrid role local to Burbank California. This role is supporting and acting as a shared service supporting Disney Marketing and titles development teams. This is a Senior Java Python, API, CI/CD and AI engineer will be working on applications for their theme parks.

This position is hybrid onsite 2-3 days a week in their Burbank location

Responsibilities

+ Work with product partners to design and run experiments for changes to models, prompts, content, retrieval strategies, guardrails, and other variables; track and report metrics using internal tooling and industry-standard AI observability platforms.

+ Build or enhance tooling for content gap detection, retrieval diagnostics, prompt evaluation, and automated guardrails to minimize poor/unexpected outputs.

+ Help define and monitor key KPIs (e.g., precision/recall, MRR/NDCG, answer accuracy, coverage, and latency) and maintain dashboards that reflect quality and reliability over time.

+ Investigate and determine root cause for specific search and answer issues in partnership with product and operations (e.g., content gaps, retrieval/pipeline problems, prompt quality, code bugs, configuration or business rule errors).

+ Implement fixes directly or coordinate with the appropriate engineering and content teams to mitigate issues and prevent regressions.

+ Identify classes of issues, propose product improvements, and design technical solutions to improve relevance, answer quality, and recommendation performance at scale.

+ Own triage in a hypercare role after releases: ensure issues are logged, prioritized, assigned, and driven to closure with clear communication and SLAs.

+ Document findings, playbooks, and runbooks; create repeatable processes for RCA, experimentation, and hypercare operations.

Required Skills & Experience

+ Strong software engineering skills in Java and Python, with experience building back-end services, APIs, pipelines, and integrations.

+ Hands-on experience with search technologies and Retrieval-Augmented Generation

+ (RAG), including vector embeddings, chunking strategies, and prompt building.

+ Practical knowledge of when and how to use LLMs to improve efficiency and quality, including prompt design/tuning, guardrails, and fallback strategies.

+ Proven root cause analysis (RCA) capabilities: ability to trace issues across data, retrieval, prompts, models, and code; skilled at identifying patterns and proposing systemic fixes.

+ Excellent communication, relationship-building, and cross-team coordination skills;

+ comfortable serving as a liaison between product operations and engineering.

+ Experience with experimentation frameworks and A/B testing, defining success metrics, and interpreting results to drive decisions.

+ Familiarity with AI observability and monitoring tools for prompt/model performance, drift detection, and error tracking.

+ Proficiency with CI/CD, version control, automated testing, and feature flagging.

+ Strong bias for action; able to manage multiple priorities in a fast-moving environment and follow through from issue detection to mitigation.

Desired Skills & Experience

+ Experience applying security best practices to application, system, and public cloud infrastructure.

What You Will Be Doing

+ 60% Java / Python

+ 20% CI/CD

+ 40% AI tech development

The Offer

+ 65-85/hr

+ available for W2 CT employee benefits

+ 401k optional

You will receive the following benefits:

+ Medical Insurance - Four medical plans to choose from for you and your family

+ Dental & Orthodontia Benefits

+ Vision Benefits

+ Health Savings Account (HSA)

+ Health and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts

+ Voluntary Life Insurance, Long-Term & Short-Term Disability Insurance

+ Hospital Indemnity Insurance

+ 401(k) including match with pre and post-tax options

+ Paid Sick Time Leave

+ Legal and Identity Protection Plans

+ Pre-tax Commuter Benefit

+ 529 College Saver Plan

Motion Recruitment Partners (MRP) is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All applicants must be currently authorized to work on a full-time basis in the country for which they are applying, and no sponsorship is currently available. Employment is subject to the successful completion of a pre-employment screening. Accommodation will be provided in all parts of the hiring process as required under MRP’s Employment Accommodation policy. Applicants need to make their needs known in advance.

**Posted by:** Kevin Gabrielson

Specialization:

+ Python

+ Java