Urgent Opening For Lead Software Development Engineer (Backend)

Adventum Student Living; Mumbai; On-site; INR 2,000,000 - 3,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Adventum Student Living is seeking an experienced backend engineer to own system design and technical direction across our platforms, while mentoring and supporting a growing backend team.

You will be the primary technical decision-maker for backend architecture across multiple concurrent projects, partnering with product, frontend, and QA to ship scalable, reliable systems. This role offers real influence over how the team works and grows.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 6 - 8 years of backend engineering experience, with demonstrated ownership of system architecture and design decisions at scale.
• Strong experience with distributed systems and backend infrastructure (e.g. Kafka, Elasticsearch, or similar event-driven/search technologies).
• Proven ability to make sound architectural trade-offs independently, with minimal need for oversight.

Responsibilities

• Own architecture and technical design decisions across multiple concurrent backend projects, working independently with minimal oversight.
• Provide scoped management support for a subset of the backend team - regular check-ins, technical mentorship, and day-to-day guidance.
• Review and unblock technical decisions currently escalated to engineering leadership, reducing single-point dependency.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with product, frontend, and QA to translate requirements into scalable, well-architected backend systems.
• Set and uphold best practices in code quality, system design, and performance across the backend team.
• Own technical direction for infrastructure-adjacent work (e.g. event streaming, search, data pipelines) in collaboration with the wider engineering team.
• Mentor engineers directly, fostering ownership, technical growth, and sound engineering judgment.

Skills

Distributed systems

Backend architecture

Mentoring

Communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Kafka

Elasticsearch

Ownership

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree

Tools

Kafka

Elasticsearch

Job description

We're looking for an experienced backend engineer to take ownership of system design and technical direction across our platforms, while mentoring and providing management support to a growing backend team.

You'll be the primary technical decision-maker for backend architecture across multiple concurrent projects, working closely with product, frontend, and QA to ship scalable, reliable systems. Were looking for someone who wants deep technical ownership alongside real influence over how the team works and grows.

Key Responsibilities:

• Own architecture and technical design decisions across multiple concurrent backend projects, working independently with minimal oversight.
• Provide scoped management support for a subset of the backend team - regular check-ins, technical mentorship, and day-to-day guidance.
• Review and unblock technical decisions currently escalated to engineering leadership, reducing single-point dependency.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with product, frontend, and QA to translate requirements into scalable, well-architected backend systems.
• Set and uphold best practices in code quality, system design, and performance across the backend team.
• Own technical direction for infrastructure-adjacent work (e.g. event streaming, search, data pipelines) in collaboration with the wider engineering team.
• Mentor engineers directly, fostering ownership, technical growth, and sound engineering judgment.

Skills & Qualifications:

• Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 6 - 8 years of backend engineering experience, with demonstrated ownership of system architecture and design decisions at scale.
• Strong experience with distributed systems and backend infrastructure (e.g. Kafka, Elasticsearch, or similar event-driven/search technologies).
• Proven ability to make sound architectural trade-offs independently, with minimal need for oversight.
• Some experience or clear aptitude for mentoring and light people-management - this role blends deep technical ownership with scoped management responsibility.
• Excellent communication skills - able to explain technical trade-offs clearly to both engineers and cross-functional stakeholders.
• A collaborative mindset, comfortable working across concurrent projects and priorities.

Why Join ASL?

• Work at a high-growth company with 20M+ users across 20+ countries.
• Own architecture for systems powering multiple products serving international students.
• Real influence over technical direction and team growth, without the full scope of a people-manager role.
• Thrive in a purpose-driven, collaborative, and innovation-focused culture.