​Lead Cloud Architecture & ML Systems Engineer (Enterprise Production Backend - GBP 2,300 Fixed-Sum Contract)

​Initiative: Automated FinTech Anomaly Detection & Threat Assessment Engine (Server-Side)
​We are seeking a senior systems architect or technical team to design, construct, containerize, and run the production backend for an Automated FinTech Anomaly Detection & Threat Assessment Engine.
​This is neither a proof-of-concept nor an experimental sandbox.
​The final deliverable must be a fully hardened, real-time, fault-tolerant infrastructure built for live enterprise environments.
​System Summary
​The server-side framework must:
​Ingest and parse high-velocity transaction streams in real time
​Identify irregular patterns via machine learning models (no static, hardcoded heuristics)
​Expose dynamic threat-assessment metrics through low-latency endpoints
​Satisfy stringent throughput, response-time, and scaling constraints
​Stubs, hardcoded logic, synthetic mock data, or fake streaming endpoints will be categorized as immediate project default.
​Compensation & Milestone Schedule - GBP 2,300 Fixed (Two Phases)
​Phase 1 - GBP 2,185
​Released upon contract initiation
​Allocated toward cloud resources, setup, and core pipeline development
​Notice:
​This tranche does not signify delivery, review, or project approval
​It does not waive technical specs, throughput standards, or runtime targets
​It does not limit legal recourse or clawback rights in the event of contractual breach
​Phase 2 - GBP 115 (Final Settlement)
​Released exclusively upon:
​Complete production go-live
​All microservices active and fully accessible
​Verification of all latency and throughput metrics
​Comprehensive handover of:
​Source repositories
​Model weights and artifacts
​Cloud and infrastructure credentials
​Technical and architecture documentation
​Unfulfilled exit criteria forfeit any claim to final compensation.
​Technical Scope (Required Deliverables)
​Omission of any baseline module constitutes total delivery failure.
​Streaming & Ingestion
​Distributed streaming pipelines (Apache Kafka & Apache Spark Streaming)
​High-volume real-time payload processing
​Schema enforcement, sanitation, and data validation layers
​Feature Pipelines
​Centralized feature management store
​Parallelized real-time streaming and offline batch computation workflows
​Predictive Analytics & Threat Scoring
​Multi-modal anomaly detection (combining statistical boundaries with recurrent LSTM models)
​Weighted ensemble threat-scoring service
​Sub-second live model inference
​Purely rule-driven filters, fixed threshold statements, or static responses are strictly rejected.
​Model Interpretability Layer
​Explainable AI integration via SHAP (or direct equivalent)
​Human-readable, transparent reasoning per inference score
​Application & API Services
​Modular FastAPI framework
​Enterprise authentication (OAuth2 / JWT tokens)
​Microservices-ready backend patterns
​Fully documented OpenAPI/Swagger specifications for downstream client consumption
​DevOps & Infrastructure
​Multi-node Kubernetes orchestration (K8s)
​Automated CI/CD build and delivery pipelines
​Telemetry, logging, and observability suites (Grafana & Prometheus)
​Canary or blue-green rollout strategies
​Standalone local scripts, Docker-compose-only setups, or non-scalable instances are disqualified.
​QA & Validation
​Peak concurrency and load testing
​Formal production-readiness verification (PRV)
​Mandatory Performance Benchmarks
​The server architecture must strictly meet or exceed these thresholds:
​Ingestion Rate: greater than or equal to 50,000 events/sec
​Pipeline Latency: less than or equal to 2.0 seconds
​Feature Lookup: less than or equal to 50 milliseconds
​Model Precision: greater than or equal to 90% true-positive anomaly rate
​Inference Compute Time: less than or equal to 80 milliseconds
​API Round-Trip Response: less than or equal to 400 milliseconds
​Failing any single performance gate constitutes non-delivery.
​SLA & System Reliability
​Target Availability: 99.5% monthly operational uptime
​Standard exemptions: pre-agreed maintenance windows, third-party provider outages, force majeure, or unapproved system alterations.
​Operational Support Windows
​Coverage Hours: 09:00 - 18:00 GMT/BST
​Incident Response SLAs:
​Severity 1 (System Down): 4-hour initial triage / 24-hour full patch
​Severity 2 (Core Degradation): 8-hour initial triage / 48-hour full patch
​Severity 3 (Minor Defect): 1 business day triage / 5 business days resolution
​Verification & Acceptance Standard
​Formal sign-off occurs strictly when:
​The system is fully deployed in a live cloud environment
​All enumerated architectural components are active and validated
​Machine learning algorithms return verifiable, live predictions
​All throughput and latency SLAs are met under load
​Continuous integration, deployment, and monitoring pipelines are functional
​System architecture guides and deployment runbooks are handed over
​Full root credentials, repositories, and model assets are transferred
​Any partial outcome will be treated as non-delivery.
​Security, Governance & Regulatory Compliance
​The developer must adhere to industry-standard safeguards reflecting:
​ISO/IEC 27001
​SOC 2 compliance frameworks
​Applicable PCI-DSS standards
​All pipelines must adhere to mandatory data privacy frameworks, specifically including UK/EU GDPR. The engineer may leverage anonymized, non-attributable data subsets only where legally compliant.
​Intellectual Property Rights
​Upon release of the final milestone:
​All custom codebases, model weights, configuration scripts, and documentation transfer entirely to the Employer.
​The Developer retains prior rights to:
​Proprietary internal boilerplates
​Generic scaffolding tooling
​Reusable provisioning utilities
​The Employer retains exclusive ownership of all proprietary data and incoming streams.
​Non-Disclosure & Confidentiality
​Both parties agree to protect and keep secret:
​Underlying platform architecture
​Data workflows and analytical models
​Live payloads, secrets, and system configurations
​This obligation remains enforceable indefinitely following contract closure.
​Default, Breach & Recourse
​Failure to deliver a fully tested, production-grade cloud platform constitutes a material contract breach.
​Grounds include:
​Unmet delivery schedules
​Incomplete or broken services
​Unmet performance or throughput thresholds
​Inability to run live in production
​The Employer reserves the right to cancel the engagement and seek full restitution of paid funds in accordance with governing jurisdiction.
​Right to Suspend Work
​The Developer may pause engineering workflows if:
​Invoices remain unpaid beyond 30 days
​The Employer breaches core terms
​Illicit use or tampering is uncovered
​Imminent security vulnerabilities compromise the build
​Liability Bounds
​Liability caps apply in alignment with standard statutory boundaries.
​Nothing in this agreement limits liability for:
​Fatalities or personal injury resulting from negligence
​Deliberate fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation
​Non-waivable statutory duties
​Unforeseen Events (Force Majeure)
​Neither party will be held responsible for operational halts caused by events outside reasonable control, such as:
​Widespread natural disasters
​Armed conflict
​Upstream grid/telecom blackouts
​State-level emergencies or epidemics
​Communication & Governance Channels
​All official communication, status reports, scope revisions, and sign-offs must be processed strictly via Upwork platform channels.
​External messaging or off-platform commitments hold no contractual standing.
​Legal Framework
​This contract is governed exclusively by the laws of England and Wales.
​All legal disputes remain subject to the sole jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.
​Zero Partial-Acceptance Policy
​Fractional or piecemeal work will not be accepted
​Partial payments will not be authorized for semi-functional setups
​"Near complete," "pre-alpha," or "beta-grade" submissions will be rejected
​Single functional modules do not qualify for prorated milestone payouts
​Test-suite access or interim feedback does not indicate formal acceptance
​Acceptance is binary and requires 100% production completion.
​Candidate Prerequisites
​Qualified applicants must show:
​Proven history shipping high-availability distributed backends to production
​Hands-on mastery of high-throughput streaming architectures
​Track record of containerizing and serving scalable ML engines
​Deep operational fluency with Kafka, Spark, K8s, and FastAPI
​Submission Checklist
​Include the following in your bid:
​Case studies of live production builds (no generic sandboxes/demos)
​High-level proposed technical design
​Resource allocation/team layout (if submitting as an agency)
​Milestone delivery timeline
​Final Direct Directive
​This engagement requires enterprise-tier systems engineering. Delivery of anything short of a fully deployed, high-throughput, production-ready platform will be marked as non-performance and unfulfilled delivery.