Senior Software Engineer - Backend, Knowledge Graph

Cognite is hiring a Senior Software Engineer - Backend, Knowledge Graph. Level rates it ; you can apply on Cognite.

Level's read on this job

On Level's scale, this software engineer role is Little AI ●○○○: aI is not part of the work.
The posting mentions Kotlin, Kubernetes and Grpc among its tools and skills.
Level classes it as a senior role.
Cognite has 52 other open roles on Level.
Posted in the last few days.

AI in this role

Build secure backend authentication and authorization services for industrial AI and data solutions.

KotlinKubernetesGrpc

ai-agentsbackend-engineeringsecurityauthenticationauthorizationdistributed-systems

What Cognite is: Relentless to achieve

Cognite operates at the forefront of industrial digitalization, building AI, and data solutions that solve the world’s hardest, highest-impact problems. With unmatched industrial heritage and a comprehensive suite of AI capabilities, including low-code AI agents, Cognite accelerates the digital transformation to drive operational improvements.

We thrive in challenges. We challenge assumptions. We execute with speed and ownership. If you view obstacles as signals to step forward - not backwards - you’ll feel right at home here.

Our Moonshot is bold: Unlock $100B in customer value by 2035, and redefine how global industry works. Join us in this venture where AI and data meet ingenuity, and together, we will forge the path to a smarter, more connected industrial future.

How you’ll demonstrate Ownership As the first line of defense for securing privileged customer data, our work is crucial to customer and company success. We operate where security, infrastructure, and product meet: designing authorization, identity, and audit solutions that are fast, correct, and observable. As a Senior or Principal Engineer, you will take ownership of security-critical backend systems, directly impacting how our platform is secured and used. The Impact you bring to Cognite

Architecting and building our core authentication and authorization services, applying modern security principles to protect all customer data.
Designing and scaling resilient gRPC/HTTP APIs and microservices on Kubernetes, ensuring high availability, low latency, and ease of integration for other internal teams.
Driving backend innovation by writing clean, maintainable code and refining our service architecture to support rapid product growth.
Leading development initiatives including threat modeling, performance tuning, and reliability engineering to harden our systems against evolving security challenges.
Mentoring engineers and collaborating across teams to shape our technical roadmap and foster a culture of secure-by-default engineering.

Required Qualifications

Significant experience building and operating distributed backend systems in a modern, typed language.
Strong proficiency in Kotlin. We value deep expertise in either language and a pragmatic approach to choosing the right tool for the job.
Deep expertise in modern authentication and authorization concepts (e.g., OIDC, OAuth2, RBAC/ABAC) and their practical application in building secure services.
Hands-on experience with cloud-native technologies, Elasticsearch and cloud platforms like GCP, AWS or Azure is vital.

Preferred Experience

A proven track record of owning services in production, from initial design and development to deployment, monitoring, and incident response.
A collaborative and pragmatic mindset, with good communication skills and a desire to mentor others.

A snapshot of our many perks and benefits as a Cogniter

* Join an organization of 60 different nationalities 🌐 with Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) in focus 🤝 * A highly modern and fun working environment with sublime culture across the organization, follow us on Instagram @cognitedata 📷 to know more * Flat structure with direct access to decision-makers * Opportunity to work with and learn from some of the best people on some of the most ambitious projects found anywhere, across industries, with cutting edge technology * Join our HUB 🗣️ to be part of the conversation directly with Cogniters and our partners. * Get access to private health services with Cognite Care. * Hungry? We’ve got your back. A subsidized lunch at the canteen is delivered by the chefs at Fornebuporten (Aker Tech House) * Our own Cognite exclusive coffee bar ☕ with the friendliest baristas is here to brew coffee for coffee lovers, tea for tea lovers, smoothie for smoothie lovers, and the baristas creative concoctions when the mood strikes. * We take your mental- and physical health seriously by having a broad health offering and a free membership to our fully-staffed gym on-site. * A pet lover? Get the chance to meet Spot at the Robot Garden! Learn more about us

Impact 2025
Cognite's Industrial AI: Moonshot
We’re globally recognized domain experts with an international presence that spans Phoenix, Houston, Oslo Tokyo, Bengaluru, and Abu Dhabi.

Equal Opportunity Cognite is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment at work and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive the same level of consideration for employment.

How we rate this

Senior Software Engineer - Backend, Knowledge Graph at Cognite rates 30 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Little AI. AI is not part of the work.

●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Key facts

Senior Software Engineer - Backend, Knowledge Graph is an open job at Cognite.
Level rates this role AI Level 1 of 4: Little AI.
The role is based in Norway (Oslo).
The job was posted on November 6, 2026.
Seniority: senior.
Applications are handled by Cognite. Apply on Cognite

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

AI agentsBackend EngineeringSecurityAuthenticationAuthorizationDistributed SystemsKotlinKubernetes

Also common in software engineer jobs at this level

Python Java C++TypeScript React JavaScript

Pay

Typical software engineer job: $167k

This posting doesn't list pay. Use the typical software engineer figure when pay comes up. See software engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
Tell me about a project where backend engineering was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where security was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where authentication was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where authorization was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: AI agents, Backend Engineering, Security, Authentication, and Authorization. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.

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