Tech Lead​/Founding Engineer

Tech Lead / Founding Engineer

Location:

Pune, India (On-site)

Type:
Full-Time

Experience:

5–12 years

About Dispatch Network

Dispatch Network is building the most efficient last-mile network in India from the ground up using technology and AI-powered optimization to drive efficiency and earnings for delivery partners. We operate across food delivery, quick commerce, grocery, ecommerce, and pharma.

We’re moving from pilots to scale, and we’re looking for a hands-on Tech Lead to own backend architecture and execution.

Role Overview

This is a deeply hands-on technical leadership role.

You will:

- Design and evolve core backend systems
- Write production Go code
- Own correctness, reliability, and performance
- Make pragmatic architecture decisions as the system scales

You’ll work across real-time orchestration, event–based workflows, gRPC services, geospatial logic, and payout systems.

This role is IC-first, with technical leadership through example.

What You’ll Do

Backend Architecture & Execution

- Own architecture across multiple Go microservices with clear boundaries and contracts
- Design systems that handle:
- high concurrency
- partial failures
- real-world edge cases
- Translate ambiguous product requirements into buildable technical designs
- Balance latency, correctness, and maintainability (no over-engineering)

Event-Driven & Real-Time Systems

- Design and operate event–based workflows:
- consumer groups
- retries
- idempotency
- Build predictable gRPC-based service communication
- Integrate AI/ML inference outputs safely into operational flows (not ML research)

Data, Geo & Routing

- Work with Postgres for transactional data and audits
- Use Redis for state, streams, and fast lookups
- Implement H3-based geospatial logic
- Integrate OSRM for routing and ETA calculations

Reliability & Observability

- Establish strong observability:
- metrics
- structured logs
- alerts
- Debug production issues calmly and methodically
- Build systems that degrade gracefully instead of failing catastrophically

Infra & Delivery (Pragmatic)

- Work with:
- AWS ECS / EC2
- Redis (Elasti Cache / OSS)
- RDS Postgres
- Maintain simple, reliable CI/CD
- Make cost-aware infrastructure decisions

Technical Leadership

- Lead architectural discussions and code reviews
- Mentor engineers on system design and debugging
- Partner closely with product/TPMs to define correct system behavior
- Keep documentation and design intent clear

Execution & Delivery Leadership

- Break down system-level designs into clear, executable tasks for junior engineers.
- Guide and review implementation across multiple services to ensure correctness and consistency.
- Actively unblock engineers by clarifying requirements, debugging issues, and resolving dependencies.
- Own end-to-end delivery of features from design through production readiness.
- Partner with product/TPMs to align scope and flag risks early when technical constraints impact timelines.

Tech Stack (Explicit, Current)

- Go (primary)
- gRPC + REST
- Event Based Workflows
- Redis (state, caching)
- Postgre

SQL (RDS)
- AWS ECS / EC2
- OSRM, H3
- Docker
- Prometheus / Grafana

What We’re Looking For

Required

- 5–8 years building backend or distributed systems
- Strong production experience with Go
- Experience designing event-driven or real-time systems
- Proven ability to debug live systems under load
- Strong system thinking and ownership mindset

Strongly Preferred

- Logistics, marketplaces, fintech, or infra-heavy products

- Experience with payouts, ledgers, or transactional systems
- Comfort integrating ML inference into production flows

What Will NOT Work

- “Architect-only” profiles who don’t write code
- Over-engineers who default to complexity
- People who avoid messy real-world systems
- Engineers who need fully defined specs before acting

Why Join Dispatch

- Founding-level technical ownership
- Real systems, real constraints, real impact
- Direct influence on architecture and product direction
- Culture that values clarity, correctness, and long-term thinking