Head of Backend Engineering

We are partnering with a fast-growing, Berlin-based digital entertainment business operating at scale across Europe. The company is building a high-traffic, consumer-facing platform where performance, reliability, and speed of innovation are critical.

They are now hiring a Head of Backend Engineering to lead the backend function while remaining deeply hands-on. This role blends technical leadership, system architecture, and active coding, and is ideal for someone who enjoys setting technical direction while still shipping production code.

As Head of Backend Engineering, you will own the backend platform end-to-end, leading a small but growing team of engineers while acting as the technical authority for backend systems. You will work closely with Product, Frontend, Mobile, and Data teams to deliver scalable, resilient services that power a high-usage entertainment platform.

This is not a purely managerial role, you are expected to remain close to the codebase and be actively involved in design, implementation, and problem-solving.

Key Responsibilities:

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Own the backend architecture for a high-traffic, consumer-facing platform
• Design and evolve scalable, secure, and resilient backend systems
• Make pragmatic technology decisions balancing speed, quality, and long-term maintainability
• Lead system design discussions and technical decision-making across teams
• Contribute directly to the codebase (design, development, reviews)
• Lead by example through high-quality, production-ready code
• Be involved in debugging, performance optimisation, and incident resolution
• Set engineering standards for backend development, testing, and deployment
• Lead, mentor, and develop backend engineers
• Support hiring and team scaling as the platform grows
• Foster a strong engineering culture focused on ownership, quality, and collaboration
• Conduct code reviews and provide regular technical feedback
• Partner closely with Product and Engineering leadership on roadmap planning
• Translate product requirements into robust technical solutions
• Work cross-functionally with frontend, mobile, DevOps, and data teams
• Ensure reliable delivery through well-defined processes and tooling

The exact stack is flexible, but experience in several of the following is expected:

• Modern backend languages (e.g. Golang, Python, Node.js)
• Cloud infrastructure (GCP)
• Microservices or modular monolith architectures
• Databases (SQL and NoSQL)
• CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure-as-code
• Observability, monitoring, and production support

Why This Role?

• True hands-on leadership, technical ownership without stepping away from code
• Opportunity to shape the backend platform
• High-impact role within a modern engineering organisation
• Berlin-based team with a strong engineering culture