Lead Backend Engineer
Polarsteps
full-time
Posted on:
Location Type: Hybrid
Location: Amsterdam • Netherlands
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Job Level
About the role
- Lead the platform team of Senior Backend and DevOps Engineers, setting clear technical direction and expectations while staying close enough to the code to spot problems early and driving a top-notch developer experience.
- Own the platform and backend roadmap in partnership with Product & Mobile, turning company-level goals into scalable technical solutions and making pragmatic architecture decisions that balance long-term platform investments with short-term wins.
- Scale and evolve our infrastructure to handle continued growth (we have millions of active users), with reliability, performance, and observability top of mind.
- Raise the technical bar through hands-on code reviews, architectural guidance, and clear standards.
- Be accountable for team health and performance: delivery, quality, incident response, knowledge sharing, and sustainable on-call practices.
- Be AI-pilled, but responsibly. You are on top of and experiment with the fast-changing landscape of AI tooling, and act as an evangelist within the team - but always understanding its current limitations and ensuring its usage is properly de-risked.
Requirements
- Proven experience leading and growing backend engineers, including performance management, coaching, and setting a clear technical direction.
- A track record of building and scaling systems handling thousands of requests per second, with deep learnings and reflections through those experiences.
- Strong proficiency in languages like Python, Ruby, or Go
- Experience with cloud-based architectures, relational databases, and event-driven or messaging-based systems.
- A track record of improving developer experience, such as building pipelines, deployment workflows, and the ability to clearly articulate the impact of those improvements.
- A high bar for code quality, testing, observability, and CI/CD, and the willingness to uphold it.
- Pragmatic problem-solving approach, balancing quick solutions with structural changes when necessary.
- Excellent English communication skills, both written and spoken. You are comfortable owning the technical direction, explaining trade-offs and aligning stakeholders
Benefits
- A yearly free flight or train ride to a random location! Give our Teleporter a spin here.
- A shiny new MacBook to work your magic on.
- Hybrid working, our way. Work from home and the office, we ask everyone to be in the office 2 days a week. It’s how we stay flexible, focused, and meaningfully connected in person.
- An extensive home office set-up, everything from noise-canceling headphones to a standing desk.
- 30 days of vacation (for adventures or sitting on the couch, it's up to you)
- Two paid Culture Days for days that are important to you but not recognized by the official Dutch calendar.
- The option to switch up your zoom background by working from another country for up to 8 weeks a year.
- A personal development budget for that curious mind of yours!
- A pension plan to help you save for those around-the-world retirement trips.
- Delicious daily team lunches.
- Awesome monthly parties, as well as team trips away.
- A lively office in downtown Amsterdam, with travel costs reimbursed.
- Free Polarsteps Travel Books to contain all your far-flung adventures.
Applicant Tracking System Keywords
Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.
Hard skills
PythonRubyGocloud-based architecturesrelational databasesevent-driven systemsmessaging-based systemsCI/CDcode qualitytesting
Soft skills
leadershipperformance managementcoachingproblem-solvingcommunicationteam healthknowledge sharingtechnical directionstakeholder alignmentdeveloper experience