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Lead Backend Engineer, Ruby On Rails
Location
Croatia
Posted
38 days ago
Salary
$120K / year
Seniority
Senior
Job Description
Lead Backend Engineer, Ruby On Rails
Sowelo Consulting sp. z o.o. sp. k.
• Lead and mentor a team of mid/senior backend engineers (4–5), including 1:1s, feedback, and performance management • Translate product and business goals into clear technical roadmaps, sprint plans, and backend priorities • Own the backend architecture and technical vision for mobile-first, consumer-facing apps used by tens of thousands of daily active users • Drive and oversee implementation of new features for our mobile apps, working closely with iOS/Android, Product, Data, DevOps and Trust & Safety teams • Take key architectural decisions around scalability, performance, reliability, data flows, and infrastructure on AWS • Modernise and improve a large, Ruby on Rails codebase (including version upgrades and refactoring legacy areas) while keeping systems stable in production • Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks, improve API speed and reliability, and design effective caching and database strategies • Establish and continuously improve engineering processes, coding standards, code review practices, and deployment/CI pipelines • Create and maintain clear technical documentation and design specs for backend systems and major initiatives • Handle prioritisation and trade-offs in a fast-moving environment with changing quarterly priorities • Be hands-on with coding and code reviews, especially for complex or high-impact areas, and step in during critical production incidents
Job Requirements
- 8+ years of professional backend development experience in production environments and most recent experience in leading a backend teams
- Proven experience owning backend architecture for a mobile-first, consumer-facing app
- Strong hands-on expertise with Ruby On Rails
- Experience building and scaling high-traffic systems (Over 10k+ daily active users) with a focus on performance and reliability
- Solid understanding of distributed systems, relational databases, caching, and performance optimization
- Practical experience working in the cloud (preferably AWS) and collaborating closely with DevOps / infrastructure engineers
- Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical topics and trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders (e.g. CEO, Product)
- Background in a startup or fast-moving product companies, comfortable with changing priorities and making pragmatic trade-offs
- Strong product mindset, user-focused, impact-driven, and able to connect technical decisions to business outcomes
- Comfortable taking ownership, making decisions, and leading in a fully remote, distributed team environment
Benefits
- Fully Remote Role with flexible working hours (core collaboration typically in European daytime)
- 30k USD bonuses (seasonal + EOY, dependant on individual and company performance)
- 27 days of paid vacation (15 days of personal leave + 12 days of public holidays following your local country calendar)
- Company paid team trips, 1–2 times per year to attractive locations (e.g. Thailand, Bali) including flights and accommodation
- Access to company-provided AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor company accounts) to boost your productivity
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