We are seeking an accomplished and highly experienced Technical Lead to join our dynamic engineering team. The ideal candidate will possess a deep passion for building robust, scalable, and high-performance applications, coupled with proven leadership abilities. You will be instrumental in guiding the technical direction of our backend services, ensuring architectural integrity, and fostering a culture of excellence within the team. This role requires a strong blend of hands-on development expertise, architectural design skills, and the ability to mentor and lead other engineers. Experience in a product company, with exposure to project management and stakeholder communication, is highly valued.

Responsibilities :

- Lead Technical Design and Architecture : Drive the design and architecture of complex backend systems, including High-Level Design (HLD) and Low-Level Design (LLD), ensuring scalability, reliability, and maintainability.

- System Design and Evolution : Take ownership of system design, making critical architectural decisions, and guiding the team in implementing best practices for distributed systems and microservices.

- Technical Leadership and Mentorship : Provide technical leadership and mentorship to a team of backend developers, fostering their growth and ensuring adherence to coding standards and best practices.

- Code Quality and Review : Conduct thorough code reviews, providing constructive feedback, and ensuring the delivery of high-quality, efficient, and well-documented code.

- Hands-on Development : Design, develop, and maintain high-quality backend services and APIs using Java, contributing directly to critical components and setting an example for the team.

- Microservices and Orchestration : Lead the implementation and management of microservices architecture, ensuring scalability, resilience, and efficient deployment using Kubernetes.

- API Design and Integration : Define and enforce best practices for designing, developing, and consuming RESTful APIs, ensuring seamless integration with various systems.

- Database Expertise : Oversee database schema design and optimization, ensuring data integrity, performance, and scalability for complex data models. Write and optimize advanced SQL queries.

- CI/CD and DevOps : Champion and optimize CI/CD pipelines using tools like Jenkins or GitLab Pipelines to automate builds, tests, and deployments, ensuring smooth and rapid delivery.

- Monitoring and Observability : Establish and maintain robust monitoring solutions using ELK (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana), Prometheus, Grafana, or similar stacks to ensure the health, performance, and observability of our applications.

- Cloud Strategy : Drive the adoption and optimal utilization of cloud platforms (GCP/AWS/Azure etc.), making architectural decisions related to cloud-native services and infrastructure.

- Project and Stakeholder Management : Collaborate effectively with product managers, front-end developers, and other stakeholders to understand requirements, define technical scope, manage expectations, and deliver technical solutions on time.

- Troubleshooting and Incident Management : Lead the troubleshooting and debugging of complex production issues, providing timely and effective resolutions, and implementing preventative measures.

- Innovation and Research : Stay abreast of emerging technologies, industry trends, and best practices, evaluating and recommending new tools and approaches to enhance our technical stack.

Must-Have Skill Set :

- Java Expertise (Senior Level) : Strong proficiency and deep understanding of Java development, including advanced object-oriented programming principles, design patterns, and common frameworks (e.g., Spring Boot).

- High-Level Design (HLD) & Low-Level Design (LLD) : Proven experience in designing complex systems from high-level architectural concepts down to detailed component-level designs.

- System Design & Architecture : Extensive experience in designing and evolving scalable, resilient, and performant distributed systems, with a strong understanding of architectural patterns and trade-offs.

- Microservices Architecture (Expert) : Hands-on expertise in designing, developing, deploying, and managing complex microservices architectures.

- Kubernetes (Expert) : Practical and in-depth experience with Kubernetes for container orchestration, deployment, scaling, and management of production workloads.

- REST APIs (Expert) : Expertise in designing, developing, documenting, and consuming RESTful APIs, including API versioning and security best practices.

- Database Design & Optimization (Expert) : Expert-level understanding of relational databases, advanced SQL query optimization, database schema design for performance and scalability, and experience with various database systems.

- CI/CD Tools (Expert) : Hands-on experience with designing, implementing, and optimizing CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, GitLab Pipelines, or similar advanced tools.

- Monitoring & Observability (Expert) : In-depth experience with monitoring tools and strategies, including ELK (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana), Prometheus, Grafana, and distributed tracing.

- Cloud Platforms (Expert) : Extensive experience working with and architecting solutions on at least one major cloud platform (Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS), or Microsoft Azure).

- Leadership & Mentorship : Proven ability to lead, mentor, and guide a team of engineers, fostering a collaborative and high-performing environment.

- Problem-Solving & Analytical Skills (Advanced) : Exceptional problem-solving, analytical, and debugging skills for complex distributed systems.

Good-to-Have Skill Set :

- Kotlin : Familiarity or experience with Kotlin for backend development, ideally in a production environment.

- NoSQL Databases : Experience with NoSQL databases (e.g., MongoDB, Cassandra, Redis) and understanding their use cases.

- Messaging Queues : Experience with messaging queues (e.g., Kafka, RabbitMQ) for inter-service communication.

- Experience using AI tools in Day to Day activities : Familiarity with or experience leveraging AI-powered tools for tasks such as code generation, debugging assistance, automated testing, or architectural pattern suggestions.

- Security Best Practices : Strong understanding of security principles and best practices for backend applications and APIs.

- Performance Tuning : Experience with performance profiling and tuning of Java applications and database queries.

Qualifications :

- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.

- 6 to 9 years of professional experience in backend development, with a significant portion in technical leadership or senior architectural role within a product company.

- Demonstrated experience in leading technical projects from conception to deployment.

- Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, agile environment, balancing hands-on development with leadership responsibilities.