Founding Engineering Team Lead (HandsOn)

Academic Key; Berlin; Hybrid; EUR 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

TechBiz Global GmbH in Berlin seeks a Founding Engineering Team Lead to guide a hands-on, high-performance engineering team. You will shape the backend and platform architecture, deliver critical features, and drive security and reliability end-to-end.

You will own the engineering roadmap, mentor engineers, and collaborate closely with the CEO and product leadership while maintaining a startup mindset and fast pace.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• 3+ years of experience leading engineering teams while remaining hands-on.
• 3+ years of GoLang experience.
• 3+ years experience with AWS in production environments.
• Strong code quality bar and architectural review experience.
• Ability to context-switch between technical topics and people leadership.
• Hands-on coding mentality; can build things from scratch including security architecture yourself.
• Hands-on experience with Docker, Kubernetes (EKS) and containerized workloads.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions or similar).
• Experience with monitoring, logging, observability (Grafana, OpenTelemetry, Prometheus).
• Experience with Coding CoPilots (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, AWS CodeWhisperer, Codex, etc.).
• Knowledge of Experience supporting production SaaS platforms.
• High ownership mentality, startup mindset, and ability to move quickly.
• Experience in startup or scale-up environments.
• Low ego, high commitment, and a true tech startup mentality.
• Excellent English communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a small, high-performing engineering team while remaining hands-on.
• Design, build, and review production backend and platform code alongside the team.
• Own delivery of the engineering roadmap, balancing speed, quality, and security.
• Act as a technical leader by setting architecture direction and enforcing engineering standards.
• Contribute directly to critical features, integrations, and platform foundations.
• Establish lightweight engineering processes that enable fast execution without bureaucracy.
• Mentor engineers through code reviews, pairing, and technical guidance.
• Contribute hands-on in design and build architecture, configure systems, code 70% of the time in GoLang.
• Remove blockers and unblock delivery across backend, frontend, data, and DevOps.
• Collaborate closely with CEO, CPTO, and product leadership on technical and execution decisions.
• Support hiring, onboarding, and technical evaluation of engineers.
• Foster a culture of ownership, pragmatism, and low ego.
• Build whole Security platform setup from scratch.
• Partner closely with backend and AI engineers to design secure service boundaries and deployment models.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex production incidents across infrastructure, networking, and application layers.
• Build PoCs and validate infrastructure and security design decisions in an early-stage environment.
• Support compliance readiness by enabling controls, logging, and evidence collection for security frameworks.
• Continuously improve platform cost efficiency, reliability, and operational maturity.

Skills

GoLang

Leadership

AWS

CI/CD

Docker & Kubernetes

English communication

Security architecture

Observability

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes (EKS)

GitHub Actions

Grafana

OpenTelemetry

Prometheus

Claude Code / Copilot

Job description

Founding Engineering Team Lead (HandsOn)

Abroad

At TechBiz Global, we are providing recruitment service to our TOP clients from our portfolio. We are currently seeking a Founding Engineering Team Lead to join one of our clients ' team in Berlin. If you're looking for an exciting opportunity to grow in a innovative environment, this could be the perfect fit for you.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a small, high-performing engineering team while remaining hands-on
• Design, build, and review production backend and platform code alongside the team
• Own delivery of the engineering roadmap, balancing speed, quality, and security
• Act as a technical leader by setting architecture direction and enforcing engineering standards
• Contribute directly to critical features, integrations, and platform foundations
• Establish lightweight engineering processes that enable fast execution without bureaucracy
• Mentor engineers through code reviews, pairing, and technical guidance
• Contribute hands-on in design and build architecture, configure systems, code 70% of the time in GoLang.
• Remove blockers and unblock delivery across backend, frontend, data, and DevOps
• Collaborate closely with CEO, CPTO, and product leadership on technical and execution decisions
• Support hiring, onboarding, and technical evaluation of engineers
• Foster a culture of ownership, pragmatism, and low ego
• Build whole Security platform setup from scratch
• Partner closely with backend and AI engineers to design secure service boundaries and deployment models
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex production incidents across infrastructure, networking, and application layers
• Build PoCs and validate infrastructure and security design decisions in an early-stage environment
• Support compliance readiness by enabling controls, logging, and evidence collection for security frameworks
• Continuously improve platform cost efficiency, reliability, and operational maturity

This role reports directly to CEO & CPTO

Must have skills

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience
• 3+ years of experience leading engineering teams while remaining hands-on
• 3+ years of GoLang experience
• 3+ years experience with AWS in production environments
• Strong code quality bar and experience with architectural reviews
• Ability to context-switch between technical topics and people leadership
• Strong execution mindset and comfort operating under ambiguity
• Hands-on coding mentality; can build things from scratch including security architecture yourself
• Hands-on experience with Docker, Kubernetes (EKS) and containerized workloads
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions or similar)
• Experience with monitoring, logging, observability (Grafana, OpenTelemetry, Prometheus)
• Experience with Coding CoPilots (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, AWS CodeWhisperer, Codex, etc.)
• Knowledge of Experience supporting production SaaS platforms
• High ownership mentality, startup mindset, and ability to move quickly
• Experience in startup or scale-up environments
• Low ego, high commitment, and a true tech startup mentality
• Excellent English communication skills

Nice-to-have requirements

• Previous experience as a founding or early-stage Engineering Manager
• Experience in cybersecurity , identity, or enterprise SaaS platforms
• Exposure to DevOps, SRE, or data engineering
• Experience scaling teams and systems simultaneously
• Experience with security architecture, identity security, or security engineering
• Familiarity with compliance frameworks (NIS2, DORA, ISO 27001, SOC 2)
• Understanding of OAuth/OIDC, API tokens, IdP, scopes, SSO, SCIM, roles, RBAC/ABAC, service accounts
• Familiarity with cloud identity and security controls (e.g. IAM, CloudTrail, Azure Active Directory / Entra ID )
• Hands-on with SIEM platforms such as Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, or IBM QRadar
• Experience designing permission models, identity graphs, or access control frameworks
• Knowledge of tokenization, Zero Trust principles , least privilege, and continuous verification
• Experience with Security related to AI/LLM systems, agent logic, or willingness to learn fast
• Familiarity with AI agent behavior , LLM security, or agent sandboxing
• Previous experience in cybersecurity , identity startups
• You are a fan of rock or metal music
• Excellent German communication skills

Benefits

• Founding Team Member Equity - ESOPs in a well funded cybersecurity company.
• Competitive Compensation - salary aligned with market, flexible early-stage arrangements possible.
• Founding Team Member Status - shape the company from day one and own critical security technical decisions.
• Fresh Funding Secured - immediate runway to build, hire, and execute fast.
• Security Contribution - contribute to security tech architecture across identity, AI agents, and enforcement.
• High Autonomy - freedom to design and build without corporate overhead.
• Work with a Technical CEO and CPTO - fast iteration, strong alignment, clear direction.
• Cutting-Edge Domain - identity security, SaaS-to-SaaS access, AI agent governance.
• Massive Learning Curve - quickly gai

TechBiz Global GmbH · Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Abroad Berlin, Berlin, Germany Experienced fulltime fixed term Link validated