Lead Software Engineer

Localizationacademy; Snowflake (AZ); Remote; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in localization technology seeks a Lead Software Engineer to drive AI-powered localization initiatives. You'll guide technical direction, integrate translation engines, and mentor engineers in a collaborative environment. Join a diverse team committed to innovation and customer value.

Benefits

4 Company holidays

Christmas break

Birthday off

2 Giveback days

Professional onboarding

Learning & development support

Qualifications

• Proven experience as a Tech Lead or Senior Engineer in backend systems.
• Strong backend skills in Java (17+), Spring Boot, and ideally Groovy/Grails.

Responsibilities

• Define technical strategy and architecture for AI-driven translation workflows.
• Foster team autonomy and ownership.

Skills

Java

Spring Boot

Collaboration

Problem Solving

Tools

AWS

NoSQL databases

CI/CD

Kafka

RabbitMQ

Job description

At Phrase, we help open the door to global business by providing the worldu2019s most comprehensive localization platform.

Weu2019re transforming language technology with our AI platform to give people the content they need, in the language they speak. Whether it's for digital products like an app or website, marketing comms, legal literature, internal comms or customer service messaging, Phrase ensures that content always hits its mark by being on brand, consistent, and culturally resonant.

With a global team working from our offices in Hamburg and Pragueu2014or from home across Europe, the UK, the US, and the APAC regionu2014we help organizations like Uber, Shopify, Puma, Snowflake, Volkswagen and thousands of others engage their customers at scale to accelerate growth.

As a Lead Software Engineer in the Neural AI Team at Phrase, you will drive the evolution of AI-powered localization, focusing on machine translation workflows and backend platform capabilities. Youu2019ll guide technical direction, foster alignment, and ensure impactful outcomes.

This role goes beyond codingu2014youu2019ll own complex initiatives, shape product and architectural decisions, and empower the team to scale its impact. Whether or not you take on line management, youu2019ll act as a domain leader, ensuring clarity and direction for both the team and stakeholders.

We are looking for a product-minded engineer who prioritizes customer value, navigates trade-offs, and promotes collaboration across engineering, product, and design.

What youu2019ll be responsible for:

Technical & Product Leadership

• Define technical strategy and architecture for AI-driven translation workflows.
• Integrate external translation engines and models to extend Phraseu2019s platform.
• Collaborate with Product and Design to deliver valuable, scalable solutions.
• Lead end-to-end initiatives, balancing delivery with system evolution.

Team Empowerment

• Foster team autonomy and ownership.
• Mentor engineers and support technical decision-making.
• Lead by example with clean, scalable, testable code.

Cross-Team Impact

• Represent Neural AI in architecture and strategy discussions.
• Align with Generative AI, Research, and Infrastructure teams on shared initiatives.
• Proactively resolve ambiguity and reduce cross-team friction.

What you need:

• Proven experience as a Tech Lead or Senior Engineer in backend systems within product-led environments.
• Strong backend skills in Java (17+), Spring Boot, and ideally Groovy/Grails.
• Solid grasp of scalable architectures, distributed systems, streaming (Kafka), and async communication (RabbitMQ).
• Proficiency with relational and NoSQL databases (MariaDB, MongoDB), CI/CD pipelines, containerization, and AWS or similar.
• Product-oriented mindset with a focus on customer outcomes and pragmatic problem-solving.
• Collaborative, hands-on, and adaptableu2014balancing alignment with decisive execution.

What youu2019ll get:

• Work experience in a successful and growing global SaaS company
• Be part of an international team of 300+ in Europe, APAC, and the Americas
• Expert colleagues in their field who are determined to build the best localization platform on the market, creating a world where language never limits opportunity
• An agile work environment, where it is encouraged to take smart risks
• Take part in a culture full of trust, support and loyalty, where respectful and open feedback is valued, and diversity is fully embraced
• A positive, open-minded, and innovative atmosphere
• Support in your professional development and personal career goals

What's on top:

• 4 Company holidays additional to your regular holidays (1 day per quarter where the entire company is off to celebrate our achievements).
• In addition, the company also provides employees with a Christmas break to allow you to spend time with family and friends without use of your vacation allocation.
• Your birthday is off because it is important to celebrate you as well.
• 2 Giveback days where you can support the local community, volunteer, and/or participate in charity events and activities.
• Professional and extensive onboarding.
• Learning & development through Phrase learning and a dedicated ChatGPT Plus user license
• Additional local benefits depending on the entity you're hired at, just ask your Talent Acquisition Partner

At Phrase we believe in the critical importance of diversity in all its forms and intersectionalities, and are committed to ensuring that the people we interview reflect this diversity. We therefore strongly encourage people of any identity to apply for our exciting career opportunities. We have taken an active decision to make our work environment inclusive every day, starting at the very beginning of your Phrase experience.

We value and welcome different perspectives, experiences and backgrounds as we believe that these differences make our team even stronger on our mission of opening the door to global business by giving everybody access to the content they need in the language they speak.