Lead SDE - Data Engineering, Ultra

Affle; Gurugram District; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 6,500,000; Full time

Job summary

Affle in Gurgaon seeks a Technical Lead to guide data engineering and scalable API development. You will oversee the full product lifecycle, architect scalable systems, and mentor an engineering team across locations, ensuring delivery of robust data pipelines and integrations.

You will drive standards, code reviews, and performance optimization while collaborating with DevOps, data, frontend, and business stakeholders to align technical direction with business goals.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience leading cross-functional engineering teams.
• Cloud Certification in AWS, GCP, Databricks, or Snowflake.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills with stakeholders.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment and mentor others.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing engineering team with architectural direction.
• Define long-term technical architecture for scalable, secure platforms.
• Establish engineering standards, processes, and QA frameworks.
• Evaluate new technologies and develop PoCs to validate approaches.
• Conduct code and architecture reviews; coach for technical excellence.
• Contribute hands-on to design, development, and delivery of key features.

Skills

API Development

Messaging systems

Databases

Distributed data processing

In-memory data processing

Data Warehouses

Data Modelling

Data Pipelines

Integrations

CI/CD

Docker

Jenkins

Kubernetes

Cloud platforms

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Engineering

Tools

Docker

Jenkins

Kubernetes

UV

Poetry

PM2

Job description

Office Location: Gurgaon

Designation: Lead SDE

Position Description

As a Technical Lead, you are expected to be skilled in the fundamentals of Data Engineering and Scalable APIs. You will be responsible for building a strong foundation of scalable backend systems using modern frameworks and tools, while also designing and maintaining robust data pipelines and integrations. This includes overseeing the entire product lifecycle, from solution development through execution and launch.

Technical Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and grow a high‑performing engineering team by providing technical guidance, architectural direction, and continuous support throughout the product development lifecycle.
• Work collaboratively with a core team of architects, DevOps, business teams, and developers spread across different locations to assist with solutions to the requirements from a technical perspective.
• Define and drive the long‑term technical architecture, ensuring the platform is scalable, resilient, secure, and aligned with future business requirements.
• Establish and enforce engineering standards, development processes, coding best practices, and quality assurance frameworks to deliver consistent, maintainable, and high‑quality software.
• Evaluate emerging technologies, conduct technical research, and develop Proofs of Concept (POCs) to validate new ideas, frameworks, and architectural approaches.
• Conduct regular code reviews, architecture reviews, and performance evaluations, providing constructive feedback and coaching to foster technical excellence and professional growth within the engineering team.
• Contribute hands‑on to the design, development, optimization, and delivery of key product features, technical improvements, and strategic roadmap initiatives.
• Drive continuous improvement in system performance, observability, automation, and engineering productivity through proactive optimization and adoption of modern development practices.

Skills

• API Development: Building scalable and performant APIs with Python, Golang, or NodeJS.
• Familiarity with messaging systems (e.g., Kafka, Pub/Sub, or Redis Streams).
• Databases: Solid understanding of SQL and NoSQL data stores and schema design; experience with PostgreSQL (Must), Redis, and MongoDB (Optional).
• Experience with distributed data processing tools (e.g., Spark, Trino/Presto, or similar).
• Experience with in‑memory data processing frameworks – Pandas, Numpy, DuckDB, Polars, etc.
• Data Warehouses: Experience with Google BigQuery, Clickhouse, Databricks, or Snowflake.
• Understanding of data modelling, partitioning, indexing, and query optimisation.
• Data Pipelines: Develop and manage ETL/ELT pipelines, data models, schemas, and data transformation logic for analytics and operational use.
• Implement integrations with third‑party APIs and internal microservices.
• Collaborate with frontend, DevOps, and data engineering teams to ship end‑to‑end features.
• Experience implementing Data Monitoring tools like Sentry.io, Grafana, Datadog, or similar.
• Contribute to CI/CD workflows and infrastructure automation using tools like UV, Poetry, PM2, Docker, and Jenkins.
• Experience with containerised environments (Docker) and Serverless architectures.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS or GCP) and services like S3, Lambda, or Cloud Functions.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
• 8+ years of experience with a proven track record of successfully leading cross‑functional engineering teams in the development and delivery of complex products.
• Cloud Certification in AWS, GCP, Databricks, or Snowflake.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build rapport and trust with team members and stakeholders.
• Proven ability to identify and resolve impediments or conflicts that may arise during the development process.
• Ability to thrive in a fast‑paced, dynamic environment and adapt quickly to changing priorities.
• Continuous growth and learner mindset with a passion for Agile principles and practices, and a commitment to ongoing professional development.
• Ability to take ownership of complex tasks and deliver while mentoring team members.