Practo - Lead Software Engineer - Backend

About Practo :

At Practo, our mission is to simplify healthcare and enable Better Patient Experiences. Millions of patients and more than 40,000 healthcare providers rely on the Practo ecosystem for services ranging from discovering and booking healthcare providers to managing practices, accessing online consultations, and maintaining digital medical records. We operate in a fast-paced environment where engineers act as intrapreneurs, taking ownership of high-impact products and solving complex engineering challenges with a strong focus on customer and business outcomes.

About the Role :

As a Lead Software Engineer - Backend, you will drive the architecture, design, and execution of highly scalable backend systems that power Practo's B2B and B2C healthcare platforms. You will work on complex distributed systems challenges involving high concurrency, low latency, data privacy, reliability, and zero-downtime deployments. The role combines hands-on technical leadership with mentorship, cross-functional collaboration, and ownership of critical backend initiatives from concept through production.

Key Responsibilities :

Architecture & System Design :

- Design, build, and maintain highly scalable, fault-tolerant, and low-latency backend systems capable of handling millions of requests daily.

- Translate complex product requirements into clean, scalable architectural patterns and microservices APIs.

- Design robust distributed systems with a focus on scalability, reliability, performance, and maintainability.

- Drive technical decisions around APIs, databases, caching, messaging, and infrastructure.

Technical Leadership & Execution :

- Lead technical execution for key backend initiatives, taking features from concept through production deployment with end-to-end ownership.

- Establish and promote engineering standards for clean code, system performance, observability, security, and automated testing.

- Conduct thorough code reviews and ensure adherence to engineering best practices.

- Advocate for modern engineering tools, AI-assisted coding practices, automation, and efficient CI/CD pipelines.

- Identify and resolve complex technical challenges related to performance, scalability, reliability, and concurrency.

Mentorship & Team Growth :

- Mentor junior and mid-level software engineers through technical coaching, pair programming, code reviews, and knowledge sharing.

- Help engineers develop strong system design, coding, debugging, and problem-solving skills.

- Partner with engineering leadership and HR teams to participate in technical interviews and hiring initiatives.

- Contribute to building a strong engineering culture focused on ownership, collaboration, and continuous learning.

Cross-Functional Collaboration :

- Partner closely with Product Managers, Frontend Engineers, Mobile Developers, and DevOps/SRE teams.

- Translate product requirements into scalable technical solutions.

- Collaborate across teams to deliver end-to-end features on schedule.

- Communicate technical decisions, trade-offs, risks, and dependencies effectively to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Required Qualifications & Experience :

Experience :

- 6 - 10 years of hands-on software development experience.

- At least 1 - 2 years of experience in a Technical Lead or Module Lead role working with microservices-based platforms.

Core Technical Skills :

- Strong proficiency in one or more backend programming languages such as Java, Go (Golang), Python, or Node.js.

- Strong expertise in relational databases such as PostgreSQL and MySQL.

- Hands-on experience with NoSQL and distributed data stores such as Redis, MongoDB, or Cassandra.

Distributed Systems & Cloud :

- Hands-on experience with asynchronous messaging and event-driven architectures using Kafka or RabbitMQ.

- Proven experience with AWS or GCP.

- Strong understanding of Docker and Kubernetes.

- Experience with modern CI/CD tools and deployment pipelines.

System Design & Engineering Fundamentals :

- Strong understanding of Data Structures and Algorithms.

- Expertise in RESTful and/or gRPC API design.

- Strong understanding of caching strategies and distributed caching.

- Experience with database optimization and DB sharding.

- Strong understanding of scalability, fault tolerance, availability, and system reliability.

Problem Solving :

- Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.

- Proven experience diagnosing and resolving performance bottlenecks, memory leaks, concurrency issues, scalability challenges, and production reliability issues.

Preferred Qualifications :

- Experience working in high-concurrency environments such as HealthTech, FinTech, E-commerce, or Hyperlocal Delivery.

- Familiarity with healthcare data regulations, privacy standards, and data security practices.

- Experience leveraging AI tooling, LLMs, or agentic automation to improve backend engineering workflows and infrastructure.

- Experience designing and operating large-scale distributed systems in production.

Why Join Practo? :

Real Impact :

- Build technology that contributes to improving healthcare access and experiences for millions of patients and healthcare providers across India and internationally.

True Autonomy :

- Take ownership of high-impact engineering initiatives with an emphasis on outcomes, accountability, and high agency.

Continuous Learning :

- Develop your technical and leadership capabilities through internal workshops, technology talks, knowledge-sharing initiatives, and Practo Academy.

What We're Looking For :

- Strong technical ownership and engineering judgment.

- Ability to design and build scalable backend systems.

- A hands-on approach to solving complex engineering problems.

- Strong mentorship and communication skills.

- Product-oriented thinking and the ability to balance technical excellence with business requirements.

- Passion for engineering excellence, continuous improvement, and emerging technologies.