Head of Backend Engineering

Annapurna; Berlin; On-site; EUR 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Opportunity to shape the backend platform

High-impact role

Strong engineering culture

Job summary

A leading digital entertainment company in Berlin is seeking a Head of Backend Engineering to lead its backend function and remain actively involved in coding. This role demands strong technical leadership and the ability to design scalable backend systems. The successful candidate will also mentor a team of backend engineers and play a crucial part in technical decision-making. If you're passionate about shaping innovative tech solutions while maintaining hands-on involvement, this role offers a high-impact opportunity within a vibrant engineering culture.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in technical leadership and backend architecture.
• Strong proficiency in modern backend languages like Golang or Python.
• Experience with scalable and resilient backend systems.

Responsibilities

• Own the backend architecture for a high-traffic platform.
• Lead, mentor, and develop backend engineers.
• Conduct code reviews and provide technical feedback.
• Collaborate with Product, Frontend, Mobile and Data teams
• Ensure reliability, performance, and uptime

Skills

Technical leadership

System architecture

Backend languages (e.g. Golang, Python, Node.js)

Cloud infrastructure (GCP)

Microservices architecture

CI/CD pipelines

Performance optimization

Mentoring engineers

Tools

Databases (SQL and NoSQL)

Python

Node.js

GCP

CI/CD

Job description

We are partnering with a fast-growing, Berlin-based digital entertainment business operating at scale across Europe. The company is building a high-traffic, consumer-facing platform where performance, reliability, and speed of innovation are critical.

They are now hiring a Head of Backend Engineering to lead the backend function while remaining deeply hands-on. This role blends technical leadership, system architecture, and active coding, and is ideal for someone who enjoys setting technical direction while still shipping production code.

As Head of Backend Engineering, you will own the backend platform end-to-end, leading a small but growing team of engineers while acting as the technical authority for backend systems. You will work closely with Product, Frontend, Mobile, and Data teams to deliver scalable, resilient services that power a high-usage entertainment platform.

This is not a purely managerial role, you are expected to remain close to the codebase and be actively involved in design, implementation, and problem-solving.

Key Responsibilities:

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Own the backend architecture for a high-traffic, consumer-facing platform
• Design and evolve scalable, secure, and resilient backend systems
• Make pragmatic technology decisions balancing speed, quality, and long-term maintainability
• Lead system design discussions and technical decision-making across teams
• Contribute directly to the codebase (design, development, reviews)
• Lead by example through high-quality, production-ready code
• Be involved in debugging, performance optimisation, and incident resolution
• Set engineering standards for backend development, testing, and deployment
• Lead, mentor, and develop backend engineers
• Support hiring and team scaling as the platform grows
• Foster a strong engineering culture focused on ownership, quality, and collaboration
• Conduct code reviews and provide regular technical feedback
• Partner closely with Product and Engineering leadership on roadmap planning
• Translate product requirements into robust technical solutions
• Work cross-functionally with frontend, mobile, DevOps, and data teams
• Ensure reliable delivery through well-defined processes and tooling

The exact stack is flexible, but experience in several of the following is expected:

• Modern backend languages (e.g. Golang, Python, Node.js)
• Cloud infrastructure (GCP)
• Microservices or modular monolith architectures
• Databases (SQL and NoSQL)
• CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure-as-code
• Observability, monitoring, and production support

Why This Role?

• True hands-on leadership, technical ownership without stepping away from code
• Opportunity to shape the backend platform
• High-impact role within a modern engineering organisation
• Berlin-based team with a strong engineering culture