Lead Backend Engineer (Python/Kotlin) - AI-Driven Cloud

Motion Recruitment; Waltham (MA); Hybrid; USD 173,000 - 234,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical Insurance

Dental Benefits

Vision Benefits

PTO

401(k)

Life Insurance

Disability Insurance

Parental Leave

Job summary

Motion Recruitment is seeking a Lead Backend Software Engineer in Waltham, MA hybrid, to lead a team while actively contributing to production code in a fast-paced engineering culture where code is deployed continuously.

You will design cloud-native backend services with Python and Kotlin on AWS, build scalable distributed systems, mentor engineers, and drive AI-powered development practices across the platform.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in Backend Software Engineering.
• 2+ years of experience leading or managing software engineering teams.
• Expert-level proficiency with Python and modern backend development practices.
• Professional experience with Kotlin in production environments.
• Strong AWS cloud platform experience, including designing and operating distributed systems.
• Experience building and supporting highly available, scalable microservices architectures.
• Hands-on engineering leader who actively contributes production code.
• Experience working in fast-paced environments with frequent production deployments.
• Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure automation, and cloud-native engineering.
• Strong understanding of software design, system architecture, observability, and performance optimization.
• Experience mentoring engineers and driving technical excellence across teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of backend engineers while remaining an active contributor to the codebase.
• Design, build, and scale cloud-native backend services using Python and Kotlin.
• Architect and optimize AWS-based distributed systems.
• Drive delivery of production-ready software in an environment with continuous deployment.
• Champion engineering best practices including testing, observability, reliability, and operational excellence.
• Mentor and develop engineers through technical guidance, code reviews, and career coaching.
• Partner with product, platform, and engineering leaders to define technical roadmaps.
• Implement AI-driven capabilities and automate software development lifecycle processes.
• Improve developer productivity through enhanced tooling, automation, and platform capabilities.
• Ensure system reliability, security, and performance across all services.

Skills

Backend engineering

Team leadership

Python

Kotlin

AWS

Distributed systems

Microservices

Hands-on coding

CI/CD

Observability

Mentoring

CS degree

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering or equivalent

Tools

Kubernetes

Terraform

CloudFormation

Maven/Gradle/Nx

Nx

Job description

Motion Recruitment is seeking a Lead Backend Software Engineer in Waltham, MA hybrid, to lead a team while actively contributing to production code in a fast-paced engineering culture where code is deployed continuously.

You will design cloud-native backend services with Python and Kotlin on AWS, build scalable distributed systems, mentor engineers, and drive AI-powered development practices across the platform.