Tech Lead (m/f/d)

Superchat; Berlin; Hybrid; EUR 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Urban Sports Club

John Reed membership

Public transport subscription

Dance subscription

Regular team events

€500 personal development budget

Job summary

Superchat is hiring a backend-leaning Tech Lead to guide a 3-4 person engineering team and own engineering for a product component. The role combines hands-on software design with people leadership, in a hybrid Berlin setup.

Expect to shape architecture, drive delivery velocity, and collaborate closely with Product and leadership. You’ll work with Kotlin/Quarkus on JVM, leverage AWS, and explore AI-assisted development to improve speed and quality.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience as a Senior or Staff Engineer and hands-on in software development.
• Substantial experience with the JVM ecosystem (Java or other JVM language).
• Kotlin and AWS experience; backend runs on Kotlin/Quarkus.

Responsibilities

• Spend ~50% of time in architecture, development, code reviews and technical projects.
• Lead a team of 3-4 engineers and own their effectiveness, quality and delivery.
• Collaborate with Product Manager to understand problems, shape solutions and set priorities.
• Establish clear technical direction while enabling engineers to own decisions and grow.
• Run regular 1:1s, give actionable feedback, support each engineer’s development.
• Remove blockers, manage dependencies and identify delivery risks early.
• Improve engineering practices and explore AI in the software lifecycle.
• Contribute to hiring through technical interviews and structured feedback.

Skills

Backend engineering

JVM ecosystem

Kotlin

AWS

People leadership

Delivery focus

Product mindset

Clear communication

AI-assisted development

Tools

Kotlin/Quarkus

Java

Quarkus

Architecture design

AWS

Job description

At Superchat, we're rebuilding how businesses talk to their customers. The phone call, the contact form, the support ticket: all of it is being replaced by messaging and AI. We're building the platform that runs underneath.

Founded in 2020, Superchat has become the platform of choice for 10,000+ businesses worldwide, from globally recognized brands like Allianz, Auto1, Enpal, Danone, and GASAG to the small businesses, dental practices, and one-person startups that need to look bigger than they are. Today, millions of messages flow through Superchat every single day.

We started as a unified inbox: one place for every channel a customer might pick, WhatsApp, email, SMS, Instagram. Then ChatGPT happened, and the second chapter began: AI agents that respond across chat, email, and voice at the quality of the best human teams.

We're 100 people, profitable, and have raised €18M in funding (last round 4.5 years ago, we've been growing on our own money since). Headquartered in Berlin.

We are hiring a backend-leaning Tech Lead to lead a team of 3-4 engineers and own the tech for a part of Superchat’s product.

This is a hands-on leadership role: You’ll spend roughly half your time designing and building software and the other half enabling your team to perform at its best. Work directly on architecture, development and important projects while creating the clarity, feedback and environment your engineers need to deliver an excellent product

Who We Want

A strong, current backend engineer.
You bring 3+ years of experience as a Senior or Staff Engineer and remain deeply involved in software development. You are comfortable owning, designing and building crucial parts of production systems.

Experienced with the JVM ecosystem.
You have substantial experience with Java or another JVM language. Kotlin and AWS experience are a plus, since our backend runs on Kotlin/Quarkus.

Ready to lead people.
You may already have worked in a hybrid Tech Lead role, have been an Engineering manager for a short time or be taking your first steps in people leadership after successfully owning projects and architecture. What matters is that you genuiely want to help people grow

Strong at delivery.
You know how to turn product goals into reality. You are used to work in fast-paced startups and are a driver to increase velocity.

Product-minded.
You care about solving the customers problem. You engage with product decisions, challenge assumptions constructivly and find pragmatic solutions to build things in a lean way.

Clear communicator.
You are able to explain complex technical things in details to Engineers and in an understandable way to non-technical stakeholders. You create alignment and motivate people

Excited about AI-assisted development.
You are already using AI in your development workflow and are eager to explore how it can improve engineering speed, quality and the way teams work.

Who We Don’t Want

Pure people manager. You no longer want to work directly on software. This role requires meaningful, ongoing involvement in architecture, implementation, code review, and technical problem-solving.

Hero engineer. You want to make every important technical decision yourself or become the bottleneck for the team. Your job is to raise the effectiveness of the whole team, not to be the only person who can solve difficult problems.

Pure delivery manager. You treat engineering as a ticketing operation focused only on timelines and task tracking instead of product quality, technical health, and team growth. We need engineering leaders, not project coordinators.

Remote-only operator. You prefer fully remote work and don’t want to actively build relationships and culture in person with the team. We believe strong engineering leadership requires regular in-person collaboration and presence in Berlin.

Your Day To Day

• Spend approximately 50% of your time contributing directly to architecture, development, code reviews, and important technical projects.
• Lead a team of 3-4 engineers and take responsibility for its effectiveness, technical quality, and delivery.
• Work closely with your Product Manager to understand customer problems, shape solutions, scope projects, and set priorities.
• Establish clear technical direction while enabling engineers to own decisions and develop their judgment.
• Run regular 1:1s, give actionable feedback, and support each engineer’s development and performance.
• Remove blockers, manage dependencies, and help the team identify delivery risks early.
• Improve engineering practices and explore effective uses of AI throughout the software-development lifecycle.
• Contribute to hiring through technical interviews, structured feedback, and candidate conversations.

Stakeholders

Director of Engineering: Your manager and partner on people development, calibration, processes.
Direct Reports: Engineers in your team; you own their development, performance and growth
Product Manager: PMs own what and why; you own how (delivery) and who (people)
CTO and CPO: We are a lean organization with a flat hierarchy. You will regulary disccuss the direction of architecture with the CTO and product with the CPO

Why People Choose Us

Mission that matters. Real impact on small businesses, not abstract metrics

Funded with conviction. $18M raised and profitable

Modern stack. Kotlin/Quarkus, AWS, TypeScript/React/Next.js, and LangGraph for AI-powered features

Squad-based organization. Each squad owns its domain end-to-end with real ownership and autonomy

Two clear career tracks. We support both individual contributor growth (up to Staff level) and Management Paths with explicit reversibility between both and Tech Lead being the first level of management that is still quite hands-on

Product-led structure. PMs report directly to the CPO, keeping product strategy focused, consistent, and clearly prioritized

Hybrid by design. Our Berlin office in Prenzlauer Berg is the center of gravity, with two work-from-home days as the standard setup

Direct feedback culture. Honest, direct, and kind feedback is part of how we work together - in 1:1s, retrospectives, and everyday collaboration

Benefits & Culture

• Choose between an Urban Sports Club/John Reed membership or a public transport/Dance subscription
• Regular company and team events
• Annual personal development budget of €500 for conferences, courses, books, career coaching, and more
• An inclusive and exciting startup culture that enables fast professional and personal growth
• Beautiful office in the heart of Berlin (Prenzlauer Allee 242) with free snacks, drinks, and top-notch equipment

We want to build a community, not just a company.

It’s important to us to create an environment where people genuinely enjoy spending time together - whether that’s through HYROX training, golfing, beer pong tournaments, running clubs, Warhammer, weekend activities, or whatever kind of community you’d like to help build here!

We're looking for people with passion, grit, and integrity. You're encouraged to apply even if your experience doesn't precisely match the description. At Superchat, we welcome diverse perspectives and people who think rigorously.

Relocating to Berlin? We support you with practical relocation help. You'll feel home in no time.