Backend Engineering Lead

bïrch (ex Revealbot); Netherlands; Remote; EUR 111,053 - 128,139; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

38 days of paid time off annually

Full health insurance

$2000 annual holiday travel bonus

$2000 annual Learn & Development budget

$2000 annual bonus for team meet-ups

Relocation support

Laptop budget

Co-working budget

Job summary

A creative marketing tools company in the Netherlands seeks a Backend Lead to manage and guide engineers while also staying hands-on in coding. You will report to the CTO and influence architectural decisions. If you have strong experience in Go and Ruby and are ready for an impactful leadership role, we encourage you to apply. The company offers a competitive salary, 38 days of paid time off, and a culture that fosters growth and autonomy.

Qualifications

• Experience leading a small engineering team.
• Confidence in Go and Ruby, with strong PostgreSQL skills.
• Ability to challenge ideas constructively.

Responsibilities

• Manage three backend engineers and report to the CTO.
• Conduct code reviews focusing on quality and readability.
• Support team growth through feedback and performance reviews.

Skills

Leadership in engineering

Go

Ruby

PostgreSQL

Quick prototyping

Tools

PostgreSQL

Python

Job description

Overview

Hi. We are Bïrch. Our product is a mighty toolbox for all the things creative and growth marketing teams do — content creation, collaboration, and ad campaigns, all in one place. We've been in the game for over 8 years, trusted by 600+ companies and more than 5,500 marketers. With billions in ad spend running through our platform, we're not just keeping up, we're one of Meta's fastest-growing partners and officially backed by both Meta and Google. Recently, we rebranded from Revealbot to Bïrch, and we wrote about this transformation journey here.

Base pay range: $130,000.00/yr - $150,000.00/yr

We are hiring a Backend Lead to take over part of the engineering team so our CTO can focus on more strategic work like long-term architecture and product direction. In the first few months, this person will be deeply involved in day-to-day coding, while gradually taking on more leadership responsibilities. The role includes running 1:1s, supporting growth, catching quality issues earlier in the process, and contributing to architectural decisions. We are looking for someone who can guide engineers, give clear and honest feedback, and help the team run effectively without depending on the CTO to step in.

What will you do?

• You'll report directly to the CTO and manage three backend engineers — Kamila, Marat, and Dmitriy. Some of your work areas include: 70/30 split between hands-on coding and leadership, gradually moving toward 50/50 with leadership decisions, high-level prototypes, and overseeing implementation across the team
• Support team growth: 1:1s, feedback, helping engineers identify strengths and next steps, and leading performance reviews
• Around 30% of time on code reviews, focusing on logic, readability, and quality
• Lead architectural design — write foundational structures for features, services, or parts of the product
• Participate in planning sessions to estimate, prioritize, and guide backend work aligned with product and technical goals
• Participate in hiring for the backend team as we grow — shaping the process, writing job descriptions, screening candidates, and interviewing potential teammates

How do you know you are succeeding at Birch:

• In the first months, shadow the CTO to understand the product, the team, and how we work — prepare to step into a leadership role
• Within 3 months, get up to speed on our industry (ads, Meta ecosystem), take over team communication, lead all 1:1s, and begin code reviews
• By month 6, run deep, context-aware reviews that go beyond surface-level issues
• By month 12, lead the architecture for mid-size projects and serve as the go-to technical lead for the backend team

Requirements

Who are you?

• You’ve led a small engineering team (around 5-6 people), ideally in a startup. You’ve helped people grow, improved how the team works, and introduced lightweight processes that keep things moving without slowing the team down
• You're confident in Go and Ruby, with solid PostgreSQL experience. Go is especially important now, as it's where we need the most support. Ruby is also active in our stack, so both matter
• You challenge ideas constructively and aren’t afraid to say, "I think we should do it differently." You back it up with reasoning, helping the team adjust without blockers
• You're good at quick prototyping — building simple MVPs that show value fast. You don’t overengineer, but you know when to keep the bar high and when to keep things simple
• Experience with Python is a plus, especially since we're building AI tools and services that rely on it. It's not required, but helpful

Benefits

What do we offer?

• A chance to help build a future unicorn. We're working on a hype-worthy product with potential to scale to tens of thousands of users. You’ll be part of a team building AI-powered, agent-led marketing tools
• High autonomy and real ownership. No bureaucracy or micromanagement — space to bring your own technical approach and drive things forward
• Strong team culture with meaningful work and social cohesion
• Competitive salary and benefits:
• 38 days of paid time off annually
• Full health insurance provided through Alan or SafetyWing
• $2000 annual holiday travel bonus for you and a loved one
• $2000 annual Learn & Development budget
• $2000 annual bonus for team meetings in Barcelona or another country
• Relocation support to Barcelona
• Laptop budget for hardware
• Regular team meet-ups and off-sites
• Remote or hybrid work in Barcelona
• Co-working budget

Development process

Our team works in small product squads. In each squad we typically have one frontend, one backend engineer, and one product designer. Our process usually looks like this:

• Decide to build an app or feature and sketch how it might look with designer input
• Discuss mockups with engineers to identify simple vs. tricky parts and timelines
• Review final design and move into development with weekly updates
• Work in two-week sprints and take on additional items if needed
• Bi-weekly planning to decide what comes next

Pre-application reality

Be aware of potential challenges:

• High uncertainty: building new paths and solving novel problems
• Real risk of failure: resilience and founder-like mindset required

If this aligns with you, we’d be happy to receive your application.