Tech Lead Backend Engineer (Tier 1 College)

About the role:
Our team is looking for a hands-on Tech Lead to own the technical direction of our backend platform. You will design and build scalable services, guide a team of engineers, and take end-to-end ownership from architecture through deployment and operations. This is a player-coach role: you will still write code every day while setting the technical bar for the team
What we're looking for
Must have:
5+ years of software engineering experience, primarily on backend systems.
Strong hands-on expertise in Node.js (TypeScript is a plus).
Solid grounding in relational databases (PostgreSQL / MySQL): schema design, indexing, query optimisation.
Production experience with MongoDB and Redis.
Working knowledge of Kubernetes and containerised deployments.
Hands-on DevOps experience on AWS or Azure: compute, networking, IAM, managed databases, CI/CD pipelines.
Track record of leading technical design and mentoring engineers, formally or informally.
Strong fundamentals in system design, distributed systems, and API design.
Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or a related field from a Tier 1 or Tier 2 institution.
Good to have:
Python experience for scripting, data pipelines, or services.
Exposure to AI/ML: integrating LLM APIs, building RAG or agentic workflows, or working with ML teams on productionising models.
Infrastructure as code (Terraform, Pulumi, CloudFormation, or Bicep).
Experience with message queues and event-driven architectures (Kafka, RabbitMQ, SQS).
Experience with observability stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, OpenTelemetry).
Prior experience in a fast-growing product company or startup.
Who You Are
You lead by example and are comfortable being the most hands-on engineer in the room.
You communicate clearly with technical and non-technical stakeholders alike.
You balance long-term architecture with shipping iteratively.
You take ownership of outcomes, not just tasks.

Work arrangement
No