Backend Team Lead

Description Imagen is seeking an experienced Backend Team Lead, to build and lead a high-performing backend engineering team while driving critical technical initiatives across our platform. This is a pivotal role where you'll balance hands-on technical contribution with people leadership, shaping both our engineering culture and technical architecture. You'll own significant parts of our backend infrastructure - from large-scale image processing pipelines and AI model serving systems to distributed cloud architecture and RESTful APIs. As a technical leader, you'll mentor engineers, drive architectural decisions, and ensure our systems scale to handle billions of images while maintaining reliability and performance. Additionally, you will serve as a Squad Lead, managing a cross-functional business unit that includes both Backend and Frontend engineers, driving end-to-end product delivery. This role offers the opportunity to directly impact Imagen's growth by building the team and systems that power our AI-driven photo editing platform used by professional photographers worldwide. Responsibilities Lead, mentor, and grow a team of Backend engineers, conducting 1-on-1s, performance reviews, and career development planning. Lead a cross-functional squad (Backend + Frontend engineers) as a Squad Lead, driving product initiatives from conception to delivery. Drive technical strategy and architectural decisions for Backend systems, ensuring scalability, reliability, and maintainability. Develop and optimize scalable, distributed systems on cloud infrastructure. Balance hands-on technical work (coding, design reviews, troubleshooting production issues) with team leadership and strategic planning. Conduct code reviews and establish best coding practices, ensuring adherence to engineering standards across your team. Monitor system health and lead incident response efforts to ensure high availability of customer-facing services. Foster a culture of ownership, continuous improvement, and technical excellence within your team. Requirements 5+ years of experience as a Backend Engineer, with at least 2+ years as Team Lead. B.Sc. in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field from a well-known university. Proficiency in at least one major cloud platform: AWS, GCP, or Azure (AWS preferred). Proven expertise in Backend server development using languages like Python, Scala, Go, or Java. Experience with SQL or NoSQL databases. Experience with developing and maintaining distributed systems at scale. Experience leading or working closely with cross-functional teams (Backend, Frontend, Product) - advantage. Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively across engineering, product, and business teams. Passion for building great products, and empowering engineers to do their best work.