Technical Leader

Grape Up; Białystok; On-site; PLN 250,000 - 360,000; Full time

Job summary

Grape Up, a leading tech consultancy, seeks a Senior Software Architect to lead end‑to‑end architecture for new client engagements across Aviation, Automotive, and Manufacturing. You will own the technical design, run workshops, and steer cross‑functional teams to production readiness.

You will apply cloud-native engineering, with hands-on work in Java/Kotlin, React/TypeScript, and modern microservices, while shaping scalable, secure, and maintainable solutions for premium clients.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in computer science, engineering, or related field.
• 8+ years of commercial software engineering experience with production-grade architecture work.
• Strong hands-on experience with Java or Kotlin (Spring/Spring Boot).
• Production experience with at least one public cloud (AWS preferred).
• Containerization and infrastructure-as-code (Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform).
• Experience with distributed systems: messaging, REST/gRPC/GraphQL, CI/CD.
• Hands-on frontend coding in React/TypeScript.
• Ownership of greenfield builds or major re-architectures.
• Experience leading or mentoring engineers.
• Excellent English communication for client meetings.

Responsibilities

• Turn a blank page into a solid, production-grade platform.
• Own end-to-end technical architecture for new client engagements from discovery to production rollout.
• Act as primary technical counterpart for the client; translate goals into design and lead workshops.
• Surface risks and technical debt; propose better alternatives.
• Lead and mentor cross-functional teams; set direction and raise technical bar.
• Contribute to presales and scoping with architectural input for proposals.
• Remain hands-on for critical prototypes and architecturally significant code.

Skills

Java

Kotlin

Spring Boot

React

TypeScript

Distributed systems

Cloud (AWS/Azure/GCP)

Docker

Kubernetes

Terraform

Kafka

REST/gRPC/GraphQL

Frontend coding

Leadership/mentoring

Education

Master’s degree in CS/Engineering

Tools

AWS

Azure

GCP

Docker

Kubernetes

Terraform

Kafka

RabbitMQ

Job description

Aviation | Automotive | Manufacturing | Insurance

Seniority

Senior/Expert

Department

Software Engineering

Java/Kotlin

React/Angular

Leadership

Grape Up is a consulting & technology company that helps enterprises build and modernize their most critical applications, combining cloud-native engineering with applied AI.

We specialize in connected vehicle platforms and software-defined vehicle architectures for premium automotive manufacturers – systems that process telemetry from fleets of hundreds of thousands of vehicles in production. We also work across aviation and manufacturing, applying the same cloud-native engineering approach to mission-critical, regulated systems.

Alongside automotive, we run large-scale legacy modernization programs for mission-critical enterprise systems, increasingly powered by our in-house GenAI/agentic platform – used for code transformation, documentation generation, and test generation on multi-million-line codebases.

Responsibilities

• You’ll take a new engagement from a blank page – no existing codebase, a loosely defined problem – and turn it into a solid, production-grade platform
• Own end-to-end technical architecture for new client engagements – from initial discovery and technology selection through PoC, MVP, and production rollout
• Act as the primary technical counterpart for the client: translate business goals into an actual technical design and run technical workshops to walk stakeholders through it
• Proactively surface risks, technical debt, and better alternatives
• Lead and mentor cross-functional engineering teams: set technical direction, review key design decisions, and raise the technical bar without becoming a bottleneck
• Contribute to presales and scoping: effort estimation, solution outlines, and technical input into commercial proposals – including presenting the architectural/technical part directly to prospective clients
• Stay hands‑on where it matters – critical prototypes, spikes, and architecturally significant code – rather than operating purely at the whiteboard level

Requirements

Experience & Technical

• Master’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or a related field
• 8+ years of commercial software engineering experience, including at least 3 years designing architecture for systems that reached production – not only participating in design as a senior IC
• Strong hands‑on background in Java or Kotlin (Spring / Spring Boot) proven on enterprise‑scale microservice systems: security, scalability, resilience, async communication
• Practical production experience with at least one public cloud (AWS preferred; Azure or GCP acceptable), including containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) and infrastructure‑as‑code (Terraform or equivalent)
• Comfort with distributed‑systems building blocks: messaging (Kafka, RabbitMQ, or MQTT), REST/gRPC/GraphQL APIs, CI/CD pipelines
• Hands‑on frontend coding ability: able to personally ship production features in React and TypeScript, not just review or advise on frontend architecture
• A track record of owning at least one greenfield build or major re‑architecture – able to walk through the trade‑offs made and why, not just the patterns used
• Experience leading or mentoring engineers formally or informally (tech lead, team lead, or similar) – this role will set direction for other developers
• Very good spoken and written English (C1) – this role runs client meetings independently, often with non‑Polish stakeholders
• Proactivity and ownership: propose solutions and take responsibility for outcomes, rather than waiting for tasks to be assigned
• Strong presentation skills – able to present the technical/architectural part of a solution as part of client offer presentations and lead technical workshops with client stakeholders
• Influence without authority: able to push back on a client or a team decision with a well‑reasoned alternative and get buy‑in for it
• Business fluency: genuinely comfortable translating technical concepts into business language and building real relationships with client stakeholders

Nice to have

• Hands‑on exposure to GenAI/LLM tooling – RAG‑based systems, agentic workflows, prompt engineering, or AI‑assisted code modernization.
• Experience in the automotive, connected‑vehicle, or IoT domain (telemetry pipelines, digital twin, software‑defined vehicle) – directly relevant to our current project mix
• Additional languages beyond Java/Kotlin – Python, Go, or Rust
• Experience with data platforms and pipelines (e.g., Databricks, Kafka Streams, ETL) or systems ingesting high‑volume device/fleet data
• Prior consulting or professional services background – comfortable with ambiguity and switching context across concurrent engagements