Team Lead Enginnering Platform - Kotlin, AI & DevOps

Trust in SODA; Hamburg; Hybrid; EUR 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

Learning & development budget €1,500

Company pension scheme

Mobility allowance €30/mo

Wellness/Wellpath program

Job summary

Trust in SODA is seeking a Team Lead Engineering Platform to lead a high‑caliber backend team in Hamburg. You will own core B2B services, shape architecture and drive AI‑assisted development while staying hands‑on with coding and system design.

You will collaborate with Product and other engineering teams to deliver scalable, secure platforms and modern tooling. The role blends leadership with technical execution in a fast‑growing e‑commerce context.

Qualifications

• Proven track record leading and growing engineering teams.
• Empowering leadership style with trust and autonomy.
• Strong hands-on Kotlin and Spring Boot experience.
• Experience with MongoDB and PostgreSQL.
• Solid understanding of microservices, Kubernetes, and production systems.
• Interest in AI-driven development and agentic AI is a bonus.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a high-performing backend engineering team.
• Take ownership of core B2B platform services used at scale.
• Shape architecture and make key technical decisions with your team.
• Stay hands-on: write code, solve problems and dive into details.
• Build and operate microservices with a You build it, you run it mindset.
• Design secure, scalable, maintainable systems with tangible business impact.
• Partner with Product Management and other engineering teams.
• Define and align APIs and architecture across the platform.
• Explore and drive AI-assisted development including agentic AI approaches.
• Raise the engineering bar through tooling, practices and ways of working.

Skills

Kotlin

Spring Boot

Microservices

Kubernetes

MongoDB

PostgreSQL

REST APIs

Event-driven

Kafka

AI

DevOps

Job description

Team Lead Enginnering Platform - Kotlin, AI & DevOps

Build the platform. Shape the architecture. Lead from the front.

What do millions of users, a fast-growing e-commerce business and some genuinely interesting engineering challenges have in common?

You.

Our client is an established international digital e-commerce company with around 350 employees --- but this is far from a traditional online retail environment. Behind the products is a sophisticated technology platform handling scale, complex integrations and critical business processes.

And they're not standing still.

New digital business models are being built, start-ups are being supported and emerging technologies --- including AI --- are being explored to create what comes next.

This is where you come in.

What you'll be working on

• Lead and grow a high-performing, product-oriented backend engineering team
• Take ownership of core B2B platform services used at significant scale
• Shape architecture and make important technical decisions with your team, not for your team
• Stay hands-on: write code, solve problems and get into the details
• Build and operate microservices following a true "You build it, you run it" mindset
• Design secure, scalable and maintainable systems with tangible business impact
• Partner closely with Product Management and other engineering teams
• Define and align APIs, interfaces and architecture across the wider platform
• Explore and drive AI-assisted development, including modern agentic AI approaches
• Help raise the engineering bar through better tooling, practices and ways of working

The technology

If you enjoy modern backend engineering, there's plenty here to get your teeth into:

Kotlin · Spring Boot · Microservices · Kubernetes · MongoDB · PostgreSQL · REST APIs · Event-Driven Architecture · Kafka · AI-assisted Development · DevOps

What you bring

• Proven experience leading and developing engineering teams
• An empowering leadership style --- trust and autonomy over micromanagement
• Strong hands-on experience with Kotlin and Spring Boot
• Experience working with MongoDB and/or PostgreSQL
• Solid understanding of microservices, Kubernetes and production systems
• Experience designing and working with REST APIs and event-driven architectures
• Ideally, hands-on experience with Kafka
• A genuine interest in how AI can change the way software is designed and built
• Experience with agentic AI development practices is a bonus

What's in it for you?

You'll get the freedom and trust you'd expect from a modern engineering organisation, backed by the stability of an established international business.

• 30 days' holiday unlimited additional vacation days
• Hybrid working and workation opportunities --- typically just 3 days per quarter in the office in Hamburg, with travel expenses covered
• €1,500 annual learning & development budget
• €30 monthly mobility allowance bike leasing
• Company pension scheme
• EGYM WELLPASS for just €25 personal contribution per month
• A culture built around trust, ownership and freedom to make decisions

Why this role?

Because great Engineering Leads should be more than people managers.

If you want to stay technical, influence architecture, build great engineering teams, experiment with AI and see the impact of what you build, this role gives you the space to do exactly that.

You'll have the opportunity to bring together people, product and technology --- and actually shape all three.

If that sounds like the kind of engineering challenge you've been waiting for, we'd love to hear from you.