Backend Lead

Remotedxb; Dubai; On-site; AED 300,000 - 540,000; Full time

Job summary

Zeely AI is hiring a senior backend leader to drive the Backend Department, shaping architectural direction and ensuring scalable, reliable services. You will steer the AI orchestration layer, oversee RAG pipelines, and optimize infrastructure costs while mentoring engineers and partnering with frontend, QA, and DevOps teams.

You will design, implement, and evolve distributed systems, emphasizing observability, security, and on-call readiness.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of commercial experience with Node.js.
• 3+ years in a Lead, Team Lead, or Engineering Manager role with direct people management.
• 3+ years of hands-on experience with NestJS.
• Proven experience designing and evolving microservice architectures in production.
• Deep expertise in PostgreSQL and Redis.
• Experience with ORMs such as Prisma and Drizzle.
• Hands-on experience with AWS (EKS, RDS, SQS, S3, CloudWatch, OpenSearch).
• Strong Docker expertise.
• Experience designing reliable, scalable, and observable distributed systems.
• Solid understanding of on-call processes and incident management.
• Upper-Intermediate English level or higher.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Backend Department, driving team growth, planning, estimations, code reviews, mentoring, and performance management.
• Define the architectural vision and ensure the reliability, scalability, and performance of the backend platform.
• Develop and evolve the AI orchestration layer across multiple models and providers.
• Own the evolution of the AI Gateway powering text, image, voice, avatar, and video generation.
• Scale infrastructure and backend services to support product growth.
• Maintain high engineering standards in code quality, security, observability, and operational excellence.
• Deliver strategic AI initiatives, including proprietary RAG pipelines and AI agent capabilities.
• Collaborate with Frontend, Mobile, QA, AI Engineering, and DevOps teams.
• Partner with the Principal Engineer on infrastructure capacity planning and cost optimization.

Skills

Node.js

Lead / Engineering Manager

NestJS

Distributed systems

English (proficient)

Tools

PostgreSQL

Redis

Prisma

Drizzle

AWS (EKS, RDS, SQS, S3, CloudWatch, OpenSearch)

Docker

Job description

About the Company

Zeely AI is an AI-powered platform that helps small businesses create viral UGC videos, advertising banners, and high-performing campaigns across Meta and TikTok, making it easier for entrepreneurs to grow and scale their businesses.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Backend Department, driving team growth, planning, estimations, code reviews, mentoring, and performance management
• Define the architectural vision and ensure the reliability, scalability, and performance of the backend platform
• Develop and evolve the AI orchestration layer across multiple models and providers
• Own the evolution of the AI Gateway powering text, image, voice, avatar, and video generation
• Scale infrastructure and backend services to support product growth
• Maintain high engineering standards in code quality, security, observability, and operational excellence
• Deliver strategic AI initiatives, including proprietary RAG pipelines and AI agent capabilities
• Collaborate with Frontend, Mobile, QA, AI Engineering, and DevOps teams
• Partner with the Principal Engineer on infrastructure capacity planning and cost optimization

Requirements

• 7+ years of commercial experience with Node.js
• 3+ years of experience in a Lead, Team Lead, or Engineering Manager role with direct people management
• 3+ years of hands‑on experience with NestJS
• Proven experience designing and evolving microservice architectures in production
• Deep expertise in PostgreSQL and Redis
• Experience with ORMs such as Prisma and Drizzle
• Hands‑on experience with AWS (EKS, RDS, SQS, S3, CloudWatch, OpenSearch)
• Strong Docker expertise
• Experience designing reliable, scalable, and observable distributed systems
• Solid understanding of on‑call processes and incident management
• Upper‑Intermediate English level or higher

Preferred Qualifications

• Active AWS Architect or Developer certification
• Experience with Terraform
• Experience building high‑load systems and optimizing cost/latency trade‑offs
• Payment systems integration experience
• Backend development for mobile and web products
• Experience with GCP and Cloudflare
• Experience hiring engineers in fast‑scaling organizations
• Commercial experience integrating AI APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google)
• Understanding of RAG, embeddings, MCP, and AI agents