LEAD ENGINEER BACKEND & CLOUD SERVICES (PAYMENTS PLATFORM)
Location: Hyderabad, India
Employment Type: Full-Time
Experience Level: Senior/Lead
ABOUT THE ROLE
We are hiring an experienced Lead Engineer with strong backend development expertise and deep experience in AWS cloud services. You will lead a team of developers and develop a new payments platform a scalable, secure, and high-performance system that powers critical payment operations. This role involves technical leadership; collaboration with cross-functional, global teams; and mentoring junior engineers while leveraging modern frameworks and cloud-native best practices.
- Technical Leader: Ability to make architectural decisions and mentor team members
- Systems Thinker: Deep understanding of scalability, reliability, and performance trade-offs
- Quality Champion: Passion for clean code, testing, and maintainability
- Collaborative Partner: Excellent communication with cross-functional teams (product, security, QA, frontend)
- Reliability Advocate: Understanding of the criticality of payment systems with commitment to operational excellence
- Continuous Learner: Passion for staying current with cloud technologies and best practices
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Design & Architecture
- Develop scalable backend services using Python, AWS-native technologies (Lambdas, Step Functions) and Confluent Kafka messaging
- Build secure and performant REST APIs and asynchronous message-based microservices architecture
- Contribute to system architecture discussions and technical decision-making for the payments platform
- Design extensible, provider-agnostic integration layers for seamless addition and replacement of external payment providers
Development & Quality
- Apply Test-Driven Development (TDD) and maintain high test coverage across all deliverables
- Write clean, maintainable, and well-tested code following industry best practices and conventions
- Build high-throughput, low-latency payment processing systems optimized for reliability and resilience
AWS & Infrastructure
- Deploy and manage applications using AWS services (Lambda, Step Functions, DynamoDB, DocumentDB, SQS/SNS, EventBridge, API Gateway, S3, CloudWatch)
- Implement Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform for reproducible, scalable deployments
- Configure Event Source Mappings (ESMs) and event-driven architectures for asynchronous processing
- Implement CI/CD pipelines for continuous integration and deployment
Operations & Observability
- Integrate software with monitoring and support tools (AWS CloudWatch) for operational excellence
- Design for resilience, redundancy, and disaster recovery in critical payment systems
- Troubleshoot and resolve issues in development, testing, and production environments
Collaboration & Leadership
- Collaborate with product managers, security engineers, QA teams, and other development teams to deliver high-quality features
- Ensure the team engineers understand their stories and have implemented them as intended based on collaboration with the project stakeholders
- Mentor junior engineers and establish coding standards and best practices
- Participate in agile planning, pair programming sessions, and retrospectives
- Maintain clear technical documentation and promote engineering excellence
ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience: 6+ years of professional backend development experience; 3+ years in a senior or lead technical role
Python & Backend Development
- Strong proficiency in Python for backend service development
- Deep expertise designing and consuming RESTful APIs and microservices architecture
- Strong understanding of async, message-based architectures and event-driven design patterns
- Experience with distributed systems, eventual consistency, and idempotency
AWS Cloud Services
- Hands-on experience with AWS Lambda and Step Functions (serverless architecture design)
- Strong expertise with AWS databases (DynamoDB, DocumentDB)
- Proficiency with AWS event-driven services (SQS/SNS, EventBridge, Event Source Mappings)
- Experience with API Gateway for API management and deployment
Infrastructure & DevOps
- Hands-on experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform or similar tools
- Proficiency with CI/CD pipelines and modern DevOps practices
- Experience managing and deploying applications on AWS at scale
Fundamental Skills
- Strong problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and communication abilities
- Excellent understanding of security, scalability, and performance in backend systems
- Experience with Test-Driven Development (TDD) and maintaining high test coverage
- Knowledge of REST API design conventions and OpenAPI Specifications
DESIRABLE SKILLS
- AWS Services: S3, Transfer Family, CloudWatch, API Gateway optimization
- Advanced Patterns: Event-driven architecture, OAuth2, JWKS, and API security concepts
- Data Engineering: Confluent Kafka experience (consumers and producers)
- Identity & Access: IAM, OAuth2, and OpenID Connect implementations
- Tools & Platforms: GitLab, VS Code, JIRA/Confluence
- Observability & Monitoring: CloudWatch, Prometheus, or Datadog
- Containerization: Docker and Kubernetes experience
- Agile: Background in Agile methodologies and working in cross-functional squads
- Payment Systems: Prior experience with payment platforms or fintech systems
- Certifications: AWS Solutions Architect, Developer, or DevOps certifications
