Lead Engineer – Platform & Architecture

Quest Alliance; India; On-site; INR 1,269,450 - 1,520,550; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive Personal Accident Insurance

Mediclaim Insurance

Internet allowance

Childcare support

Emotional health programs

Job summary

Quest Alliance is seeking an experienced Lead Engineer to take ownership of the technical integrity of the Quest platform. This hands-on role involves writing and reviewing code, solving complex problems, ensuring engineering standards, and leading a team in multiple engineering tasks. Candidates should have 6–10+ years of backend engineering experience, expertise in MySQL, APIs, and a solid track record in debugging and performance tuning. The position features competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits.

Qualifications

• 6–10+ years of strong backend engineering experience.
• Deep hands-on expertise in MySQL modeling, performance and debugging.
• Deep hands-on expertise in APIs and distributed systems.
• Strong experience in debugging production issues.
• Strong experience in performance tuning.

Responsibilities

• Actively contribute to core platform code.
• Resolve critical bugs and issues.
• Define and enforce code review standards.
• Lead deep debugging of critical issues.
• Design and review external integrations.

Skills

Backend engineering

MySQL modeling

API development

Debugging production issues

Performance tuning

Job description

The Lead Engineer owns the technical integrity, reliability, and scalability of the Quest platform, while also being directly hands‑on in building critical systems.

This is a player‑coach role:

• Write and review code
• Solve complex technical problems directly
• Ensure all engineering (internal + vendors) meets high quality and architectural standards

Key Responsibilities

Hands‑on Engineering Ownership (Critical)

• Actively contribute to core platform code (backend, APIs, system components)
• Take ownership of complex, high‑risk, or poorly understood problem areas
• Resolve critical bugs (e.g., save failures, concurrency issues)
• Build reference implementations that set standards for vendors
• Step in when root cause is unclear
• Step in when issues are repeatedly reopened
• Define and evolve platform architecture
• Ensure system coherence across modules, services, and integrations
• Make pragmatic architecture decisions grounded in real constraints
• Prevent over‑engineering while ensuring scalability

This role is not advisory — you get into the code and fix things.

3. Code Quality & Engineering Standards

• Define and enforce code review standards
• Personally review critical PRs and vendor code
• Set clear expectations for multi‑developer handoffs
• Ownership of modules
• Ensure Dev, QA, UAT, and Prod environments are aligned
• Server configs (file size limits, caching, infra)
• Work hands‑on with DevOps to fix cache inconsistencies and deployment issues

5. Testing & Quality Engineering

• Define and enforce unit testing standards (all success criteria must be covered)
• Scenario‑based QA expectations
• Boundary conditions (e.g., file size limits)

6. Root Cause Analysis & Reliability

• Lead deep debugging of critical issues
• Ensure no issue is closed without clear root cause understanding

1. What happened
2. Why it happened
3. How we prevent it

Eliminate guess fixes and repeated reopens.

7. Integration & Platform Governance

• Design and review external integrations (e.g., SIDH, partners)
• Ensure consistency in security practices

8. Performance & Real‑World Reliability

• Ensure systems are tested for low bandwidth / throttling
• Fix issues like save failures, race conditions (auto‑save conflicts), cache inconsistencies

Accountable For

• Writing and improving critical parts of the codebase
• Platform architecture and system coherence
• Engineering quality across internal and vendor teams
• Reduction in ticket reopens and production bugs

Requirements

• 6–10+ years of strong backend engineering experience
• Deep hands‑on expertise in MySQL modeling, performance and debugging
• Deep hands‑on expertise in APIs and distributed systems
• Strong experience in debugging production issues
• Strong experience in performance tuning

Salary: The pay band for the position starts at Rs. 1,25,000/- per month (cost to company). The salary offered will be commensurate with the experience and expertise of the candidate.

Benefits

• Comprehensive Personal Accident Insurance covering up to ₹10,00,000 annually
• Mediclaim Insurance covering up to ₹3,00,000 annually, supported through our insurance partner, Loop, which also offers additional wellness benefits
• Reach for the Stars (RFS) amount of up to ₹5,000 to support your self‑learning and knowledge‑building efforts
• Internet allowance up to ₹750/month, reimbursable based on actual usage to support flexible and hybrid working arrangements
• For employees with children under the age of 6 years, Quest offers childcare or day care fee support through a monthly matching contribution up to ₹3,000
• Access to emotional health and wellbeing programs such as
  • Group sessions worth ₹7,500 per session fully covered by the organisation
  • 1:1 counselling sessions (worth ₹1,800 per session), fully covered by the organisation

At Quest Alliance, we pride ourselves on being an Equal Opportunities employer, embracing applications from all segments of the community. We are committed to ensuring that every applicant and employee is treated with fairness and respect, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, marital status, social status, caste, religious belief, age, or any other factor that is irrelevant to performance. Your individuality is valued and respected within our organization.