[Hiring] Lead Backend Engineer @Sowelo Consulting

Role Description

Join a profitable, fast-moving mobile apps startup as a Backend Lead, where you’ll own the core backend behind social and dating products used by hundreds of thousands of users. You’ll lead a senior team of 4–5 backend engineers, reporting directly to the CEO, and be responsible for turning product and business goals into clear technical roadmaps, sprint plans, and high-quality execution. Your work will be a mix of hands-on leadership and coding in a fully remote, international environment.

On the technical side, you’ll take charge of a high-traffic Ruby on Rails platform and power ongoing feature development while modernising the architecture. You’ll lead key initiatives such as:

• Upgrading Rails versions
• Improving performance and reliability
• Introducing better caching and data flows
• Supporting real-time features at scale on AWS

You’ll be the one making and documenting critical technical decisions, ensuring smooth deployments and stable APIs, and stepping in when needed to debug complex production issues, all with the goal of turning a good backend into a high-output, well-organised machine.

This is a fully remote B2B contract opportunity with a base salary that goes up to $120,000 USD per year.

Your Tasks Will Include:

• 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

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional backend development experience in production environments and most recent experience in leading 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, dependent on individual and company performance)
• Work on high-impact, high-scale mobile products (millions of downloads) in a profitable, growing startup
• Strong engineering culture: open-minded, low-ego, direct communication, and high ownership
• Access to company-provided AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor company accounts) to boost your productivity
• 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
• Opportunity to shape technical direction, processes, and standards for the entire backend function