Lead Backend Engineer; m​/f​/x

Lead Backend Engineer (m/f/x)

Berlin AI Campus, Munich

Full-time

Permanent employee

We are seeking an experienced Lead Software Engineer to own the technical architecture and backend strategy for our cloud-native platform. You will be responsible for designing scalable, secure, and high-performance systems while providing hands‑on leadership to the engineering team. This role combines deep backend expertise with architectural vision and team leadership. You will define engineering standards, guide system design decisions, and ensure our AWS‑based infrastructure is resilient, observable, and optimised for scale.

You will work cross‑functionally with frontend engineers, AI engineers, product managers and customer‑facing teams to deliver reliable, intelligent, and production‑grade solutions.

Key Responsibilities:

• Own and evolve the backend architecture and cloud strategy.
• Design scalable, event‑driven, and distributed systems using modern architectural patterns.
• Make high‑impact technical decisions balancing scalability, performance, cost, and security.
• Establish and maintain architectural standards and documentation.

• Design, develop and maintain secure APIs, services and micro‑services in Python.
• Architect and implement serverless and cloud‑native systems using AWS services (e.g. Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, S3, Event Bridge, Step Functions, SQS, SNS, IoT Core).
• Design robust data models across SQL and No
  
  SQL databases. Ensure system reliability, fault tolerance and high availability in production environments.
• Implement infrastructure as code using AWS CDK, Cloud Formation or Terraform.

• Establish strong observability practices (logging, monitoring, tracing, alerting).
• Optimise system performance and cloud cost efficiency.
• Improve CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation.
• Ensure high code quality through reviews, testing standards and engineering best practices.

• Collaborate with AI engineers to integrate LLM‑based workflows and intelligent automation into backend services.
• Design scalable orchestration patterns for AI‑driven features.
• Promote responsible AI practices and production‑grade model integration.

• Lead and mentor backend engineers, fostering technical excellence and accountability.
• Drive code reviews, design discussions and architectural planning sessions.
• Contribute to hiring, onboarding and team capability development. Act as a technical bridge between engineering, product and business stakeholders.

• 7+ years of professional experience in backend software engineering. Strong expertise in Python and backend system design.
• Proven experience architecting and operating production systems within the AWS ecosystem.
• Deep understanding of serverless architectures and distributed systems.
• Strong experience with AWS services including Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, S3, Event Bridge, Step Functions and related components.
• Demonstrated experience leading or mentoring engineering teams. Strong knowledge of microservices, event‑driven systems and API design principles.
• Experience with both SQL and No
  
  SQL database design and optimisation.
• Hands‑on experience with infrastructure as code (AWS CDK, Cloud Formation or Terraform).
• Strong understanding of security best practices in cloud‑native environments.
• Experience working with Git‑based workflows and modern CI/CD pipelines.
• Excellent problem‑solving skills and ability to operate at system level. Strong written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Interest or practical experience in AI‑enabled systems, LLM integration or intelligent automation.

• Experience integrating LLMs, RAG…