Lead backend developer m/f/d

Location: Berlin (On-site, 5 days – flexibility expected longer term)

Type: Full-time | Permanent

The Role

We’re partnering with a high-growth, AI-led platform reshaping global industrial supply chains across infrastructure, energy, and construction materials.

Having already scaled to triple-digit-million GMV and recently secured Series B backing, the company is building an AI-native operating system that transforms fragmented, manual trade processes into automated, intelligent workflows.

As a Tech Lead, you will sit at the intersection of architecture, execution, and leadership — owning backend systems at a strategic level while guiding engineers and setting the technical direction for the team.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the architecture and evolution of core backend systems in a distributed, event-driven environment
• Lead technical direction across projects, ensuring scalability, reliability, and long-term maintainability
• Act as the primary technical decision-maker within your domain, clearly articulating trade-offs
• Mentor and develop engineers, raising the overall quality and output of the team
• Drive best practices across system design, testing, observability, and performance
• Partner closely with product and data teams to align engineering with business outcomes
• Identify technical risks early and proactively implement solutions
• Play a key role in hiring and shaping the engineering culture

Tech Environment

AI / Agentic Layer:

LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.), LangGraph-style workflow orchestration, AI-assisted engineering practices

Frontend (exposure beneficial):

TypeScript, Node.js, React

Skills & Experience

• 9+ years in backend engineering, with clear progression into technical leadership
• Strong expertise in Java (Spring Boot) and solid working knowledge of Python
• Proven experience designing and scaling distributed systems (microservices, event-driven architectures)
• Deep understanding of cloud infrastructure (AWS) and data systems (PostgreSQL)
• Experience leading teams or acting as a technical authority on complex systems
• Strong communication skills — able to align stakeholders and influence technical decisions
• Comfortable in ambiguity, with the ability to define and shape technical solutions

Nice to Have

• Experience with agentic AI systems or workflow orchestration frameworks
• Exposure to production LLM integrations
• Familiarity with AI-assisted coding environments and modern developer tooling

What’s on Offer

• True ownership over architecture and technical direction
• Opportunity to lead within a high-growth, AI-native business
• Complex, real-world problems at global scale
• Strong engineering culture with high autonomy and accountability
• Backed company with clear trajectory toward profitability