Lead Backend Engineer

Lead Backend Engineer at Pavago

We are seeking a Lead Backend Engineer to take full ownership of the technical function for an early-stage SaaS platform. This is a highly hands-on leadership role where you will actively write production code daily, while simultaneously making critical architectural, infrastructure, and AI system decisions for a scalable platform. You will be directly accountable for backend architecture, system reliability, AI pipelines, and providing guidance to a small, dynamic development team within a fast-moving startup environment.

Responsibilities

• Backend Architecture & Engineering: Design, build, and maintain a .NET 8.0 / C# backend utilizing Clean Architecture and Domain-Driven Design (DDD) principles. Own the architecture and codebase across 14+ independently deployed microservices, delivering new features, refactoring existing systems, and resolving performance bottlenecks.
• AI Systems & LLM Orchestration: Design and operate production-grade AI pipelines across multiple Large Language Model (LLM) providers. Optimize prompts and workflows for batch processing, personalization, and segmentation at scale. Manage rate limits, failover strategies, and cost optimization across AI providers.
• Databases & Data Infrastructure: Manage MySQL, Redis, and MongoDB in production environments. Oversee bulk writes, caching strategies, event streams, and analytics pipelines, ensuring data consistency and performance across distributed services.
• Infrastructure, Reliability & Monitoring: Own Linux-based infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, and service deployments. Implement centralized logging, monitoring, alerting, and uptime tracking. Proactively identify and mitigate reliability and scalability risks.
• API Integrations & System Resilience: Manage 25+ third-party API integrations used in production. Design retry, fallback, and graceful degradation strategies to ensure system stability even when external providers fail or degrade.
• Team Leadership & Engineering Standards: Lead and mentor a small engineering team through code reviews and architectural guidance. Set and enforce engineering standards, workflows, and best practices. Collaborate closely with the founder on product direction and technical strategy.

What Makes You a Perfect Fit

• You are a senior, hands-on engineer who enjoys owning systems end-to-end.
• You are comfortable being the most experienced technical person on the team.
• You balance fast execution with long-term architectural thinking.
• You take ownership of reliability, performance, and technical outcomes.
• You thrive in early-stage startup environments.

Required Experience & Skills

• Deep expertise in .NET 8.0, C#, ASP.NET Core, and Entity Framework Core.
• Experience with distributed systems and independently deployed services.
• Strong production experience with MySQL, Redis, and MongoDB.
• Hands-on DevOps experience with Linux servers and CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience managing large numbers of third-party API integrations.
• Proven experience building and operating AI/LLM systems at scale.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools and workflows.
• Strong understanding of monitoring, observability, and incident prevention.
• Experience leading small engineering teams.
• Strong English communication skills.

What Does a Typical Day Look Like?

• Write and review production backend code.
• Make architectural decisions across services, databases, and AI pipelines.
• Monitor system health and resolve reliability issues.
• Guide developers through code reviews and technical feedback.
• Collaborate with the founder on product and system evolution.

In short: You own the technical foundation of the platform and ensure it scales reliably while enabling rapid product development.

Key Metrics for Success (KPIs)

• System uptime and service reliability.
• Backend and AI system performance improvements.
• AI cost efficiency and pipeline stability.
• Code quality and deployment reliability.
• Team execution and delivery quality.

Interview Process

• Initial Screening Call
• Technical Interview with Pavago Recruiter
• Client Interview
• Offer & Onboarding

Key skills/competency

• .NET 8.0
• C#
• ASP.NET Core
• Distributed Systems
• Microservices
• AI/LLM Systems
• MySQL, Redis, MongoDB
• DevOps
• Linux
• System Architecture