Software Engineer III

ROLE SUMMARY:

The primary purpose of this Software Engineer III position is to architect, develop, and maintain advanced automated data extraction systems (spiders) that harvest critical business intelligence from complex web environments. This role ensures the continuous, reliable flow of high-quality data into our internal databases by engineering solutions to overcome sophisticated technical barriers and anti-bot security measures. Candidates near our Somerville, MA or Reston, VA offices are preferred but remote work it potential for the ideal candidate.

ROLE FOCUS;

As a Software Engineer III specializing in data extraction, you will be responsible for the end-to-end lifecycle of web-based data collection. This includes designing scalable crawling architectures, reverse-engineering web applications to identify data points, and implementing evasion techniques to bypass IP rate-limiting and bot detection. You will also manage the storage and integrity of this data using advanced SQL and relational database management. 

We are looking for a Senior Python Engineer with a "hacker" mindset to join our team as a Software Engineer III. This role is dedicated to large-scale web scraping and data harvesting. If you have deep experience with Scrapy or Playwright, know how to defeat Cloudflare or DataDome, and can write high-performance SQL to manage millions of records, we want to hear from you. This is a specialized role for an engineer who enjoys reverse-engineering the web to unlock data. 

The primary purpose of this Software Engineer III position is to architect, develop, and maintain advanced automated data extraction systems (spiders) that harvest critical business intelligence from complex web environments. This role ensures the continuous, reliable flow of high-quality data into our internal databases by engineering solutions to overcome sophisticated technical barriers and anti-bot security measures.  

Responsibilities: 

• Spider Development: Design and deploy robust, distributed spiders and crawlers to extract data from a variety of web architectures (SPAs, SSR, etc.). 
• Bot Evasion Engineering: Research and implement strategies to bypass anti-scraping technologies, including proxy rotation, browser fingerprinting, and CAPTCHA solving. 
• Database Management: Create and optimize SQL schemas for large-scale data storage and perform complex data transformations and validation.
• System Maintenance: Proactively monitor the health of extraction agents and refactor code quickly in response to target website updates or layout changes.
• Performance Optimization: Utilize asynchronous Python programming to maximize the throughput and efficiency of data collection pipelines. 

Requirements: 

• Advanced Python: Mastery of Python 3.x with deep experience in extraction frameworks (Scrapy, Playwright, Selenium, or Puppeteer). 
• Technical Resilience: Proven ability to bypass high-level bot detection (e.g., Cloudflare, Akamai, or PerimeterX). 
• Database Mastery: Expert-level SQL skills and experience managing relational databases like PostgreSQL or MySQL. 
• Network Proficiency: Expert understanding of HTTP/S, TCP/IP, TLS fingerprinting, and browser-header manipulation.  
• Problem Solving: A specialized ability to reverse-engineer JavaScript-heavy websites and hidden API endpoints. 
• Able to write, debug, and deploy complex Python code in a distributed environment.
• Must be able to analyze and interpret complex web structures and network traffic using browser developer tools.
• Ability to design and maintain relational database tables containing millions of rows.
• Able to pivot and respond quickly to technical "break-fixes" to ensure data continuity for the business.
• Collaboration with data analysts to define and validate data requirements and output formats. 

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field (or equivalent professional experience). 
• Minimum of 5+ years of experience in Software Engineering, with at least 2–3 years focused specifically on large-scale web scraping or data extraction. 

Benefits at Babel Street (just to name a few...)

• Health Benefits: Babel Street covers 85-100% monthly premium costs for Medical, Dental, Vision, Life & Disability insurances – for you and your family!
• Retirement Plans: Babel Street offers both a Traditional and Roth 401(K) with a very competitive match.
• Unlimited Flexible Leave: We trust our employees to manage their own time and balance their personal and work lives.
• Holidays: Babel Street provides employees with 12 paid Federal Holidays
• Tuition Reimbursement: We are committed to investing in our employees. One way we do that is with our Tuition Reimbursement Program for continuing education.                 

Babel Street is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law. Further, Babel Street will not discriminate against applicants for inquiring about, discussing or disclosing their pay or, in certain circumstances, the pay of their co‐worker, Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination. In addition, Babel Street's policy is to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified employees who have protected disabilities to the extent required by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances where a particular employee works. Upon request, we will provide you with more information about such accommodations.