Head of Backend

We are looking for a Head of Backend to lead our backend engineering organization. You will own team structure and hiring, drive performance management and career development for backend engineers, and define the engineering processes that ensure reliable, high-quality delivery. This is a leadership-first role with strong technical depth and architectural ownership expectations.

What You Will Do

• Lead and grow backend engineering teams (25+ engineers); own headcount planning, hiring, performance management, and career development for engineers across the organization

• Own delivery commitments (sprint and quarterly goals) and ensure predictable execution against roadmap

• Partner with Product Managers and Tech Leads to translate product goals into realistic technical roadmaps; balance feature delivery with technical debt, reliability, and operational needs

• Design, evolve, and enforce engineering processes including planning, stand-ups, retrospectives, code review standards, incident response, and post-mortems

• Track delivery health using key metrics (throughput, lead time, predictability rate, incident rate, MTTR) and drive continuous improvement initiatives

• In collaboration with DevOps engineers, ensure teams meet agreed SLOs and reliability targets; own monitoring, alerting, and on-call accountability models

• Build a culture of constructive feedback, psychological safety, and high engineering standards across backend teams

• Report progress, risks, and staffing needs to Engineering Leadership in a structured, data-driven forma

What We Are Looking For

• 3+ years of engineering management experience leading backend teams (5+ engineers)

• Strong technical background in backend software engineering (any stack - you must be able to assess architecture, evaluate trade-offs, and challenge technical decisions credibly)

• Track record of hiring, growing, and retaining strong engineers

• Experience owning delivery commitments and driving predictable execution in a product engineering environment

• Experience with Agile/Scrum processes, sprint planning, retrospectives, and continuous improvement practices

• Strong communication skills - ability to articulate risks, trade-offs, and progress clearly to both engineers and leadership

• English B2+ and above (written and verbal communication)

Bonus Points

• Experience managing multiple teams or a unit-level engineering org (20+ engineers)

• Hands-on backend experience with PHP, Go, Python, or Java

• Familiarity with relational (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MSSQL) and NoSQL (MongoDB, ElasticSearch) databases in production

• Experience with delivery metrics (lead time, throughput, DORA metrics) and using data to drive process improvements

• Familiarity with Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, and modern DevOps practices

Platform Unit Tech Landscape

• Languages: PHP, Go, Java, Python

• Databases: MongoDB, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse

• Infrastructure: Kubernetes, Docker, CI/CD

• Messaging & Caching: Redis, RabbitMQ, Kafka

What We Offer

Please note: fully remote contract role. B2B only - work as an independent contractor with your own legal entity.

• The chance to be part of a pioneering team in a rapidly evolving industry

• Direct impact on the future of immersive media

• Flexible working hours and remote-first culture

• A team that values initiative, clarity, and collaboration

• Access to all tools and tech you need

• Unlimited DeoVR Premium

• A work environment where ideas matter and people are treated with respect