Engineering Lead - Backend

Justlife.com; Dubai; On-site; AED 360,000 - 600,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

On-site Dubai office

Job summary

Justlife in Dubai is seeking a hands-on engineering leader to build and lead the delivery team across backend, mobile, PM, and QA. You will own the roadmap, drive releases on a cadence, and set technical quality standards while staying close to code.

The role demands leadership in delivery and people management, strong Java/MVC skills, and a passion for AI-enabled product delivery in a fast-growing home services platform.

Qualifications

• Proficiency in Java and MVC frameworks like Spring Boot.
• Experience with microservices and RESTful services.
• Strong knowledge of relational and NoSQL databases.
• Hands-on with CI/CD pipelines and containerization (Docker/Kubernetes).
• AWS knowledge and familiarity with AI tooling to improve delivery.
• Still hands-on, able to code where it counts while leading delivery.

Responsibilities

• Build out the Dubai delivery team and align backend, mobile, PM, and QA.
• Own roadmap execution and ship releases on a predictable cadence.
• Raise technical quality and set architecture/code review standards.
• Grow engineers via clear expectations, 1:1s, and feedback.
• Be the engineering voice in cross-department discussions in Dubai.
• Drive AI initiatives in product and day-to-day workflows.

Skills

Java

MVC frameworks (Spring Boot)

Microservices

Relational databases

NoSQL databases

CI/CD pipelines

Containerization

AWS

AI tooling

Hands-on coding

Tools

Spring Boot

Job description

The Role

You ll lead a delivery team in our new Dubai office backend and mobile developers a product manager and QAs working as one unit with backend engineers as your direct reports You ll own roadmap execution and technical quality partner day to day with product management and be the engineering voice in every cross-department conversation in the room This is a hands-on leadership role not a hands-off one We expect you to set the technical bar grow the engineers who report to you and stay close enough to the code to keep the technical thread while owning delivery the rest of the business can rely on

What You ll Do in Your First 6 Months

Build out the Dubai delivery team Bring backend mobile PM and QA together into one predictable delivery unit with your backend engineer s as direct reports and a clear plan to grow the team Own roadmap execution Turn the roadmap into shipped releases on a cadence the rest of the business can plan around Raise technical quality Set the bar for architecture code review and reliability across the backend measured not asserted Develop your people Grow the engineers who report to you through clear expectations structured 1 1s and real feedback Be the engineering voice in the room Make engineering an active decisive voice in every cross-department discussion in Dubai Drive AI initiatives Lead how the Dubai team adopts AI in the product and in how the team works day to day

What We re Looking For

We re hiring a technical leader who still ships strong on the engineering craft and genuinely energised by leading people and delivery Both halves matter equally

Technical depth must-haves

• Proficiency in Java
• Experience with MVC frameworks such as Spring Boot
• Experience with microservices architecture and a solid grasp of MVC and RESTful services
• Strong knowledge of relational and NoSQL databases
• Hands-on experience with CI CD pipelines and containerization
• AWS knowledge
• A real habit of using AI tools to solve problems and improve how the team works
• Still hands-on you lead delivery and you still code where it counts

Leadership amp delivery must-haves

• You ve managed engineers owned a team s delivery cadence and been accountable for what shipped
• Evidence of growing engineers setting expectations running structured 1 1s giving honest feedback handling performance
• You can turn a roadmap into predictable releases and communicate trade-offs clearly to product and leadership
• Genuinely energised by the delivery and people side of engineering management not only the technical side
• Strong communication skills and stakeholder management you represent engineering clearly to product peer leads and the leadership team and keep stakeholders aligned

Nice-to-haves

• Experience building or scaling an engineering team in a fast-growing or startup environment
• Background in consumer apps marketplaces or service platforms
• Experience standing up an engineering presence in a new office or market

Our Stack Language amp frameworks

• Java and PHP
• Spring Boot and other MVC frameworks
• Microservices MVC and RESTful services
• Relational and NoSQL databases
• AWS CI CD pipelines and containerization
• AI tooling built into how we solve problems and improve our processes

What It s Like Here

You ll join an established engineering leadership team and help grow our Dubai office Decisions get made in the room not over email You ll work directly with product peer engineering managers and leadership and our co-founders are part of the hiring process because the people building the company want to meet the people building the product We work on-site five days a week with occasional travel 1 2 times a year Our culture runs on one idea everydaybetter

Why Justlife

Why Now

We started in 2015 by digitalising home cleaning in the UAE Today we operate across 10 cities with 200 full-time employees 5K service professionals and over 15 million sessions delivered and we re one of the region s AI pioneers building toward the most loved super app for home services in the GCC The team that got us here was small The team you ll build and lead in Dubai is what gets us to 10x If you still love being close to the code if you can own delivery and technical quality at once and if you want to build a team millions of people will rely on let s talk

Share Proficiency in Java.Experience with MVC frameworks such as Spring Boot.Experience with microservices architecture, and a solid grasp of MVC and RESTful services.Strong knowledge of relational and NoSQL databases.Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines and containerization.AWS knowledge.A real habit of using AI tools to solve problems and improve how the team works.Still hands-on you lead delivery and you still code where it counts.You’ve managed engineers owned a team’s delivery cadence and been accountable for what shipped.Evidence of growing engineers: setting expectations, running structured 1:1s, giving honest feedback, handling performance.You can turn a roadmap into predictable releases and communicate trade-offs clear...