Lead Backend Engineer

M8l; United States; Remote; USD 97,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Aplazo is seeking a Lead Backend Engineer to own backend systems powering fintech products. You will design, build, and operate services end-to-end, mentor engineers, and drive quality across your squad. The role emphasizes leadership in architecture decisions, incident handling, and leveraging AI tools for scalable solutions.

Required: 5+ years in backend development, strong Java experience, distributed systems expertise, and Spanish fluency with English for cross-team collaboration.

Qualifications

• 5+ years building backend systems at scale.
• Strong experience with Java (Python/Go a plus).
• Deep knowledge of distributed systems, APIs, and cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred).
• Expert-level debugging across service boundaries.
• Track record of designing systems that balance scalability, reliability, and speed.

Responsibilities

• Own systems end-to-end — design, build, operate backend services from idea to production.
• Lead technically — run design reviews, set direction, architect decisions for your squad.
• Mentor engineers — help E1/E2 engineers grow through pairing and code reviews.
• Drive quality — champion testing strategy, observability, and best practices.
• Leverage AI strategically — use AI for architecture exploration, large refactors, and risk modeling.

Skills

Backend systems

Java

Distributed systems

APIs

Cloud/AWS

Debugging

Spanish fluency

English proficiency

Tools

AWS

PostgreSQL

Kafka

DataDog

Pulumi

Jenkins

Job description

Remote in Mexico.

About the Role

We're looking for a Lead Backend Engineer to own entire systems and lead technical initiatives. You'll design and build backend services that power Aplazo's financial products, mentor engineers, and drive quality across your squad.

At this level, you're the technical leader of your squad—breaking down ambiguous problems, delivering complex features end-to-end, and making the trade-offs that balance speed with reliability.

What You'll Do

• Own systems end-to-end — Design, build, and operate backend services from idea to production

• Lead technically — Run design reviews, set technical direction, and make architecture decisions for your squad

• Mentor engineers — Help E1/E2 engineers grow through pairing, code review, and coaching

• Drive quality — Champion testing strategy, observability, and engineering best practices

• Leverage AI strategically — Use AI for architecture exploration, large refactors, and risk modeling; build or champion AI-powered tools for the squad

• Handle incidents — Lead incident response and blameless postmortems in your domain

• Ship predictably — Break down ambiguous problems into clear milestones and deliver on commitments

What We're Looking For

Technical

• 5+ years building backend systems at scale

• Strong experience with Java (Python/Go a plus)

• Deep knowledge of distributed systems, APIs, and cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred)

• Expert-level debugging across service boundaries

• Track record of designing systems that balance scalability, reliability, and speed

AI Fluency

• Uses AI tools (Copilot, Claude, ChatGPT) daily for coding, debugging, and analysis

• Uses AI strategically for architecture exploration, large refactors, and prototyping

• Builds or champions squad-level AI-powered tools (e.g., smart alerting, test generation)

• Keeps the team ahead of new AI capabilities relevant to backend development and fintech

Leadership & Communication

• Experience mentoring engineers and leading technical discussions

• Clear communicator who can explain trade-offs to engineers, PMs, and stakeholders

• Comfortable with ambiguity and changing requirements

• Fluent in Spanish; working knowledge of English for cross-team collaboration

Mindset

• Product-minded—you care about business outcomes, not just code

• Strong ownership mentality; you see problems through to resolution

• Curious about fintech, lending, and the Mexican financial ecosystem

Nice to Have

• Experience in fintech, payments, or lending

• Familiarity with Mexican financial regulation (CNBV, Condusef)

• On-call and incident management experience

• Contributions to engineering culture (tech talks, RFCs, tooling)

Our Stack

Java (primary), Python, Go · AWS (ECS, Lambda) · PostgreSQL · Kafka · DataDog · Pulumi · Jenkins

Why Aplazo

Our mission is to empower financial access and opportunity across Latin America through fair, simple, and transparent solutions. Our tech vision: be the most beloved and innovative tech organization in Latin America.

We're a Series B fintech growing fast—you'll have real ownership, impact, and the chance to shape how millions of people access credit.