Technical Lead: Architect & Engineering

We are looking for a hybrid Technical Lead who is as comfortable managing infrastructure as they are managing people. You will be the bridge between our engineering team and the business stakeholders.

In this role, you will not only architect and deploy servers on AWS and manage CI/CD pipelines but will also be responsible for the growth, motivation, and delivery of a team of 6 young engineers. You have a strong track record of deploying applications to the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, as well as building complex B2B portals.

Reports to:  Head of Delivery/Operations, cross functional reporting.

Key Responsibilities

1. Technical Strategy & Infrastructure (The “Hard” Skills)

• Cloud Architecture: Design, deploy, and manage scalable server infrastructure on AWS (EC2, RDS, VPC, S3, IAM).
• DevOps: Build and maintain robust CI/CD pipelines (using GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or GitLab CI) to ensure zero-downtime deployments.
• Server Administration: Build and configure Linux servers, ensuring security patches, performance tuning, and high availability.
• Database Management: Design and optimize schemas for MySQL databases, ensuring data integrity and query performance.
• Application Deployment: Lead the end-to-end deployment of applications to the Apple App Store (iOS) and Google Play Store (Android).
• Code Contribution: Write high-quality code when needed, specifically in Node.js, React.js, and Flutter.

2. AI-Driven Development & Code Velocity (NEW)

• Leverage AI Tools: Actively use AI assistants like Claude (Anthropic) or GitHub Copilot to rapidly generate L1 (boilerplate) and L2 (business logic) level code, UI components, and unit tests.
• Team Enablement: Train and guide your team of 6 on how to effectively prompt AI tools to accelerate development, turning rough drafts into production-ready code.
• Quality Gatekeeping: Establish a workflow where AI-generated code is treated as a “first draft.” You and your team will be responsible for validating, refactoring, and optimizing the AI output to ensure it meets security, performance, and architectural standards.
• Efficiency: Reduce time-to-market for features by using AI to handle repetitive coding tasks, allowing the team to focus on complex, high-impact problem-solving.

3. Team Leadership & People Management (The “Soft” Skills)

• Team Mentorship: Lead, coach, and mentor a team of 6 young engineers. Conduct 1-on-1s to identify skill gaps and create growth plans.
• Motivation & Morale: Foster a culture of ownership and enthusiasm. Motivate the team to “scale up” their skills and take on challenging problems.
• Performance Under Pressure: Guide the team through high-pressure situations (e.g., production outages, tight product launch deadlines) with a calm and solution-oriented mindset.
• Delivery & Deadline Management:
  • Break down complex projects into sprint-sized tasks and push the team to achieve ambitious output goals within tight timelines.
  • Instill a sense of urgency without compromising code quality or team morale.
• Business Agility:
  • Act as the “first responder” for urgent business requests (e.g., critical client fixes, last-minute feature additions).
  • Rally the team quickly to reprioritize tasks and mobilize resources to address these high-priority demands.
• Demonstration Excellence: Lead by example in creating high-quality demos. Ensure that every sprint review or stakeholder presentation is polished, bug-free, and tells a compelling story about the product’s value.

4. Stakeholder Communication

• Presentation Skills: Translate complex technical concepts into business language for C-level executives and non-technical stakeholders.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with Product Managers, QA, and Design teams to ensure the technical feasibility of B2B and B2C product roadmaps.

Required Qualifications

Technical Requirements

• Cloud: Deep experience with AWS (minimum 3+ years). Must have hands-on experience provisioning servers (not just clicking buttons—must know scripting/IaC). Experience of migrating to a new hosting partner platform, server build, setup.
• DevOps: Strong experience with GitHub and CI/CD pipeline configuration.
• Operating Systems: Strong command of Linux administration (Bash scripting, cron jobs, network configuration).
• Stores: Proven experience deploying at least one application to the App Store (iOS) and Play Store (Android).
• Stacks:
  • Mobile: Flutter (Must have built and deployed at least one app).
  • Backend: Node.js (REST APIs, Microservices).
  • Database: MySQL (Complex queries, indexing, stored procedures).
  • Frontend: React.js (Admin panels, B2B dashboards).
• Domain: Previous experience working on B2B portals and B2C mobile applications.
• AI Proficiency: Hands-on experience using AI coding assistants (Claude, Copilot, or ChatGPT) to generate and review code.

Leadership & Soft Skills

• Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Must be able to articulate technical decisions clearly.
• Presentation: Comfortable presenting architecture diagrams and roadmaps to senior leadership, and delivering polished demos to clients/stakeholders.
• Urgency & Agility: Ability to pivot quickly based on business needs and rally the team under tight deadlines.
• Emotional Intelligence: Ability to understand the motivations of junior engineers and tailor your coaching style to their individual needs.
• Crisis Management: Proven track record of handling “fire drills” (server crashes, app store rejections) effectively.

What Success Looks Like (First 6 Months)

• Successfully integrated AI tools (Claude) into the team’s daily workflow, reducing boilerplate coding time by 30%.
• The team of 6 has autonomously delivered 2 major release cycles without micromanagement, consistently hitting sprint deadlines.
• 100% uptime on critical infrastructure during peak traffic hours.
• All urgent business requests are addressed and resolved within 24 hours.
• The team has delivered at least one “wow” demo to stakeholders that resulted in positive client feedback.

Why Join Us?

• Leadership Role: You aren’t just a number; you are building the culture and infrastructure from the ground up.
• Growth: Direct mentorship from senior leadership and budget for cloud certifications (AWS).
• Tech Freedom: We value your architectural decisions; if you recommend a specific AWS service or a new Flutter package, we listen.
• AI-First Culture: We embrace modern AI tools to make our engineers more productive, and you will lead this charge