Technical Lead Backend

About the role

You'll join a growing engineering team as a Lead Engineer / Architect, leading a small team in India and working closely with engineering teams in the US and Mexico. You'll be responsible for driving technical execution, solving complex engineering problems, and leading a team to build, deliver, and maintain reliable software.

This is a hands-on leadership role for someone with strong backend engineering expertise who can also contribute across the stack when needed.

Location: Hyderabad

Work Mode: Hybrid

What you'll do

• Lead a small engineering team in India, driving day-to-day technical execution and delivery
• Work closely with teams in the US and Mexico to plan, develop, and deliver software
• Design and build robust, scalable backend systems using .NET
• Own technical decisions around architecture, implementation, and engineering best practices
• Contribute across the full stack when needed.
• Break down complex technical problems and drive them through to implementation and delivery
• Mentor engineers and help maintain a high standard of engineering quality
• Collaborate with distributed teams and communicate technical decisions clearly

What we're looking for

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, with experience in a lead-level role
• 2+ years of experience leading a team
• Strong, hands-on expertise in .NET and backend engineering
• Strong understanding of software architecture and scalable backend systems
• Full-stack experience is preferred, with React being a plus
• Experience leading a small engineering team and driving technical delivery
• Excellent communication skills, particularly when working with distributed teams
• Strong problem-solving skills and a hands-on approach to engineering
• AI expertise is a plus
• Experience with payment systems or payment-related products is a plus

Who you are

• You take ownership and drive work through to completion
• You're hands-on and enjoy solving challenging engineering problems
• You're curious, resourceful, and always looking to learn
• You communicate clearly and work well with teams across different locations
• You lead by example and help the team deliver high-quality work

Strong Engineering Manager / Lead Profiles

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Mandatory (Experience 1) – Must have minimum 8+ years of overall Software Engineering / Development experience with a strong IC foundation.

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Mandatory (Experience 2) – Must have 2+ years of formal Engineering Manager experience with direct people-management responsibility (informal Senior Engineer / Tech Lead experience managing a team does not count)

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Mandatory (Experience 3) – Must have directly managed 4–6+ engineers, including 1:1s, performance management, growth plans, promotions, mentoring, and team development.

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Mandatory (Experience 4) – Must own technical direction and delivery for an engineering team/pod, including architecture, system design, code/PR reviews, execution planning, and engineering quality.

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Mandatory (Experience 5) – Must have strong backend/software engineering experience with hands-on technical depth in building APIs, services, integrations, and scalable systems; specific language/framework can vary.

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Mandatory (Experience 6) – Must have experience owning production operations, including on-call, incident management, debugging, and postmortems for their area.

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Mandatory (Experience 7) – Must have experience driving cross-functional alignment with Product and Design and translating ambiguous business/product requirements into scalable technical solutions.

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Mandatory (Company) – Must be from a Product Company / Startup, particularly B2B SaaS, Fintech, Payments, or similar technology product environments. (Refer Target Company List)

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Mandatory (Role Fit) – Role is 80% people/team management and 20% technical/IC involvement;

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Preferred (Education) - Tier 1 engineering college

Key Responsibilities

● Lead the architecture, design, development, and delivery of scalable backend services

using Python.

● Own technical direction and architectural decisions for backend systems and services.

● Design and build robust RESTful APIs, microservices, and distributed systems

capable of handling high-scale workloads.

● Design and implement real-time communication systems, including WebSocket-based

services, where required.

● Drive system performance, scalability, reliability, availability, and security.

● Lead performance optimization, capacity planning, monitoring, debugging, and

production issue resolution.

● Establish and promote best practices around code quality, testing, observability, CI/CD,

and production readiness.

● Collaborate closely with frontend, product, DevOps, infrastructure, and other

cross-functional teams to deliver end-to-end solutions.

● Mentor and provide technical guidance to engineers, contributing to overall team growth

and engineering excellence.

● Review code and architecture designs, identify technical risks, and drive improvements

across backend systems.

● Take ownership of complex technical problems and deliver reliable, maintainable,

production-grade solutions.

Required Skills & Qualifications

● 5+ years of software engineering experience, with significant experience in backend

development.

● Strong expertise in Python and experience building production-grade backend

applications.

● Proven experience designing and developing REST APIs and microservices

architectures.

● Strong understanding of distributed systems, scalability, fault tolerance, and

high-availability architectures.

● Hands-on experience with WebSockets and real-time backend integrations.

● Strong experience with SQL/NoSQL databases, caching systems, and data-intensive

applications.

● Experience with performance optimization, monitoring, logging, debugging, and

production operations.

● Strong understanding of software engineering principles, design patterns, and clean

architecture.

● Proven ability to lead technical initiatives and make sound architectural decisions.

● Strong communication, collaboration, and technical leadership skills.

● Experience mentoring engineers and conducting effective code and design reviews.

Celeco Labs is hiring a hands-on Head of Engineering on behalf of a confidential client in the housing-finance sector.

This is a role for an engineer who wants to own delivery, not only manage it. You will set the technical direction, build and maintain production systems, and work closely with the business team. You should be comfortable taking a requirement from the first discussion through technical planning, implementation, release, and production support.

What you will do

• Own the engineering roadmap and help decide what should be built first.

• Design, build, and maintain reliable customer-facing products and internal systems.

• Write production code and review code written by others.

• Turn business requirements into clear technical plans and releases.

• Choose practical architecture, tools, and vendors that fit the company's needs.

• Set working standards for testing, deployment, monitoring, backups, and access control.

• Protect customer and company data through practical security controls.

• Investigate production issues and make sure the same problems do not repeat.

• Help hire and guide a small engineering team as the company grows.

What we are looking for

• 3–5 years of professional software-engineering experience.

• Experience building and running production systems.

• Strong backend skills, including APIs, databases, and cloud services.

• Enough frontend knowledge to work across a product when needed.

• Good judgment about system design, security, reliability, and cost.

• The ability to explain technical choices in simple language.

• Comfort working independently and taking full ownership of delivery.

Experience in lending, housing finance, fintech, or another regulated industry is useful, but not required. Experience leading engineers or working directly with founders and business leaders is also useful.

How to apply

Please share your CV or LinkedIn profile and two short examples of production systems you have owned. This is a confidential search. More information about the company will be shared with shortlisted candidates during the interview process.

Job Summary

We are looking for an experienced Java Backend Lead with strong expertise in backend application development, system design, and technical leadership. The candidate will be responsible for developing scalable applications, guiding the development team, and ensuring high-quality delivery.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor backend development teams.
• Design and develop scalable, high-performance backend applications.
• Develop applications using Core Java, Java 8/11/17+ and Spring Boot.
• Design and implement RESTful APIs and microservices.
• Work with databases such as Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL or similar.
• Conduct code reviews and ensure coding standards and best practices.
• Troubleshoot performance, production, and technical issues.
• Collaborate with architects, product teams, QA, and other stakeholders.
• Participate in system design, technical discussions, and solution development.
• Ensure application security, scalability, reliability, and performance.
• Guide the team in Agile/Scrum development practices.

Mandatory Skills

• 10–15 years of overall IT experience.
• Strong hands-on experience in Java.
• Strong experience with Spring Boot and Microservices.
• Experience in REST API development.
• Strong knowledge of SQL and relational databases.
• Experience in system design and application architecture.
• Good experience in technical leadership and team mentoring.
• Strong problem-solving and communication skills.

Preferred Skills

• Experience with AWS/Azure/GCP.
• Knowledge of Kafka/RabbitMQ.
• Experience with Docker/Kubernetes.
• Exposure to CI/CD tools such as Jenkins, GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps.
• Experience working in Agile environments.

Strong Tech Lead / Staff Engineer / Lead Engineer Profiles

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Mandatory (Experience 1) - Must have minimum 6+ years of overall Software Engineering/Development experience building production backend systems.

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Mandatory (Experience 2) - Must have Tech Lead ownership, with experience setting technical direction, architecture, frameworks, or engineering standards used by other engineers.

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Mandatory (Experience 3) - Must have strong hands-on Backend development experience with deep proficiency in at least one backend programming language. (Python, Java, Golang etc)

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Mandatory (Experience 4) - Must have strong System design/distributed systems experience, including architectural trade-offs, scalability, failure modes, reliability, and long-term maintainability.

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Mandatory (Experience 5) - Must have strong CS fundamentals in Data Structures & Algorithms, Operating Systems, and Networking, with the ability to apply them to complex backend/system problems

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Mandatory (Experience 6) - Must have owned complex, ambiguous, or business-critical engineering problems end-to-end, demonstrating clear technical judgment, trade-offs, problem-solving, and measurable technical/business impact; not limited to feature implementation.

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Mandatory (Experience 7) - Must have formal technical leadership experience, including mentoring Senior Engineers, conducting design/code reviews, driving engineering quality, and leading technical decisions across a team.

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Mandatory (Experience 8) - Must be a hands-on IC + Tech Lead, with approximately 70–80% hands-on coding/engineering involvement, not a pure people-management profile.

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Mandatory (Company) - Product Companies / Startups / B2B SaaS

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Mandatory (Education) - CS degree or equivalent (B.Tech/B.E./B.S.)

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Preferred (Skills) - Experience with Kafka/NATS/RabbitMQ, AWS, Docker/Kubernetes, CI/CD, observability, security/compliance, multi-tenant systems, and financial/billing platforms.

Job Title: Technical Lead

Experience: 6+ Years

Job Type: Full-Time

Department: Engineering

Job Location: Sec-62, Noida.

Job Summary

We are looking for an experienced and hands-on Technical Lead with strong software engineering expertise and a proven track record of building scalable, secure, and production-grade web applications.

The ideal candidate will have 6+ years of software development experience, strong expertise across modern frontend and backend technologies, and the ability to take end-to-end technical ownership—from architecture and development through deployment and production support.

The role requires a technically hands-on leader who can provide architectural direction, mentor developers, review code, solve complex engineering challenges, and ensure high standards of engineering quality.

Practical knowledge of AI/GenAI technologies is important. Prior experience in the Indian FinTech/BFSI ecosystem will be strongly preferred.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the technical design, architecture, development, and delivery of web-based applications.
• Take end-to-end technical ownership of projects, ensuring scalable, maintainable, secure, and high-quality implementations.
• Work hands-on across frontend, backend, databases, APIs, cloud infrastructure, and third-party integrations.
• Define technical architecture, technology choices, coding standards, and engineering best practices.
• Conduct code reviews and ensure high standards of code quality, performance, security, and maintainability.
• Mentor developers and provide technical guidance throughout design and implementation.
• Identify technical risks, bottlenecks, scalability concerns, and architectural challenges early in the development lifecycle.
• Collaborate with Product Managers, Business Analysts, Designers, QA, DevOps, and other stakeholders to translate business requirements into effective technical solutions.

• Participate in effort estimation, sprint planning, technical discussions, and delivery planning.
• Troubleshoot complex production issues and drive root-cause analysis and permanent resolutions.
• Evaluate and introduce new technologies, frameworks, development practices, and AI-assisted engineering tools where appropriate.
• Identify opportunities to incorporate AI/GenAI capabilities into products, workflows, and internal engineering processes.
• Ensure applications follow appropriate practices for security, data privacy, authentication, authorization, logging, and monitoring.

Technical Skills & Requirements

Mandatory

• 6+ years of professional software development experience.
• Strong experience building and maintaining production-grade web applications.
• Strong proficiency in modern JavaScript/TypeScript ecosystems.
• Experience with frontend frameworks such as React.js, Next.js, Angular, Vue.js, or similar.
• Strong backend development experience using Node.js and/or other modern backend frameworks and languages.
• Strong understanding of REST APIs, microservices, API design, authentication, authorization, and third-party integrations.
• Experience with relational and/or NoSQL databases such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, etc.
• Good understanding of system design, distributed systems, scalability, caching, asynchronous processing, and performance optimization.
• Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure.
• Familiarity with Docker, CI/CD pipelines, Git-based development workflows, monitoring, and modern DevOps practices.
• Strong understanding of application security and secure software development practices.

AI / GenAI Skills

The candidate should have a practical understanding of the modern AI ecosystem and its application in software products.

Experience or knowledge in the following areas will be an advantage:

• LLM-based applications and APIs
• OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, or similar AI platforms
• AI agents and agentic workflows
• RAG and vector databases
• Prompt engineering and structured outputs
• AI-assisted development tools
• Integration of AI capabilities into existing web applications

• Reliability, security, privacy, cost, and hallucination considerations in production AI systems

Deep AI/ML research experience is not mandatory. The candidate should, however, be comfortable understanding and integrating modern AI capabilities into software products.

FinTech / BFSI Experience – Preferred

Prior experience working with FinTech, BFSI, lending, payments, banking, insurance, credit, or financial services products in India will be strongly preferred.

Experience in any of the following areas will be particularly valuable:

• Digital lending / Loan Management Systems
• Payments and payment gateways
• Credit bureau and credit-score integrations
• KYC / eKYC and identity verification
• Account Aggregator ecosystem
• UPI / NPCI integrations
• Banking and NBFC integrations
• Financial APIs and third-party FinTech platforms
• RBI-related technology and compliance requirements
• Data security and privacy requirements for financial applications

Leadership & Soft Skills

• Proven ability to lead and mentor engineering teams.
• Strong problem-solving, debugging, and analytical capabilities.
• Ability to make sound technical and architectural decisions.
• Strong ownership mindset with accountability for project delivery.
• Ability to communicate technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced environment with multiple projects and priorities.
• Ability to balance engineering quality with practical business and delivery requirements.
• Strong documentation and communication skills.

What We’re Looking For

We are looking for a hands-on Technical Lead rather than a purely managerial profile.

The ideal candidate should be able to:

• Understand business requirements and translate them into technical solutions.
• Design scalable and reliable application architecture.
• Guide and mentor engineering teams.
• Review critical code and technical implementations.
• Solve complex technical and production issues.
• Make effective technology and architecture decisions.
• Take ownership of delivering reliable products into production.

Mandatory Criteria

6+ years of software engineering experience with strong expertise in modern web technologies.

Strongly Preferred

• Experience building or leading FinTech products in India.
• Practical understanding of AI/GenAI technologies and their integration into modern software products.

Senior Backend Engineer

Node.js, System Design & Production Platforms

📍 Mumbai (On-site) | Full-time | 5+ years

About the Role:

Unico Connect is an AI-first technology partner that builds custom mobile, web, and AI products for clients across multiple geographies.

We are hiring a Senior Backend Engineer to own the backend architecture of a complex production AI platform on a dedicated client engagement: API design and data modelling, multi-tenancy, orchestration of long-running agent workloads, and the services that manage user projects and generated output.

We are open to full stack engineers whose primary strength and interest is backend. If you have shipped full stack work but the backend is where you do your deepest engineering, you are a fit for this role.

The mandatory requirement for this role is hands-on production experience as a senior backend engineer building complex, scalable systems in Node.js, with end-to-end ownership of architecture, data, and operations on at least one live platform.

The role is hands-on and architectural.

Expect to design system architecture, lead a small group of backend engineers, build the hardest parts yourself, set engineering standards, and partner closely with frontend, AI, and DevOps engineers.

A typical week includes an architecture decision on a new service, hands-on implementation of a critical path, a code review with mid-level engineers, and a working session with the AI engineer on an integration contract.

Responsibilities:

System Architecture

Own the backend architecture across engagements.

Make and document decisions on service boundaries, data models, API contracts, deployment topology, and trade-offs.

Hands-on Backend Delivery

Lead by example on complex modules, performance-critical paths, and high-risk areas using Node.js (Express, NestJS, Fastify) with TypeScript.

Pick up Python (FastAPI) where engagements require it.

Database Design and Performance

Drive PostgreSQL schema design, indexing, query optimisation, migrations, and capacity planning.

Set the data-modelling standard across the pod.

Caching, Queues, and Workflows

Design caching (Redis), event-driven patterns (Kafka, RabbitMQ, SQS, NATS), and long-running workflow orchestration (Temporal, BullMQ, Celery, or equivalent).

Handle retries, idempotency, and failure recovery.

Multi-Tenancy and Platform Patterns

Design and implement multi-tenant data isolation, RBAC, audit logging, and resource quotas appropriate to enterprise-grade products.

API and Integration Design

Set the standard for REST, GraphQL, and gRPC contracts.

Drive versioning, authentication (OAuth, JWT, SSO), security by default, and developer ergonomics.

Observability and Operations

Instrument services with OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, and Grafana.

Define SLOs, lead incident response, and write postmortems.

Code Quality and Mentorship

Run code reviews, define conventions, mentor mid-level engineers, and raise the engineering bar.

AI-Assisted Engineering Discipline

Use Claude, Cursor, and similar tools day to day.

Set the team standard for prompts, patterns, AI-assisted review, and validation of AI-generated backend code.

Client Engagement

Represent Unico Connect in technical conversations with customers.

Defend architectural decisions, communicate trade-offs, and manage scope.

Requirements:

Hands-on Production Experience as a Senior or Lead Backend Engineer in Node.js (Mandatory)

Must have personally built and shipped complex production systems in Node.js, owning architecture, data, and operations on at least one live engagement.

Full stack engineers whose deepest work is on the backend qualify.

POCs and internal tools alone do not qualify.

5+ Years of Professional Backend Engineering Experience

With at least 1 to 2 years in a senior or lead role with direct responsibility for technical decisions and team output.

Deep Node.js and TypeScript Proficiency

Strong with Express, NestJS, or Fastify.

Comfort with async patterns, streams, worker threads, and performance profiling.

Python as a Strong Plus

Hands-on production experience with FastAPI, Django, or Flask is a meaningful advantage.

Willingness and demonstrated ability to pick up Python as engagements demand is required.

PostgreSQL Depth

Schema design, normalisation, indexing, query performance, migrations, and at least one production system where you owned the data model end to end.

Caching and Event-Driven Architecture

Hands-on with Redis (or equivalent) and message queues or event-driven patterns (RabbitMQ, SQS, Kafka, NATS).

AWS Depth

Hands-on production experience with EC2, S3, RDS, IAM, VPC, ECR, and at least one of EKS, ECS, or Lambda.

Comfort owning deployment, monitoring, and cost.

System Design and End-to-End Ownership

Able to take an ambiguous problem, break it into components, evaluate alternatives, produce an architecture that holds up under review and load, plan execution, and ship with limited supervision.

AI-Assisted Engineering Experience

Daily use of Claude, Cursor, Copilot, or equivalent.

Strong discipline for reviewing and validating AI-generated backend code.

Excellent Written and Spoken English

Experience working directly with international clients.

Confident defending architectural choices in writing and in review.

Nice to Have:

• Workflow orchestration (Temporal, Airflow)
• GraphQL (Apollo, gRPC)
• Sandboxed execution environments
• Multi-tenant SaaS experience
• OpenTelemetry instrumentation
• Prior agency or consulting experience