Tech Lead (Kotlin)

Location: Berlin, Germany; hybrid by design with two work-from-home days as the standard setup and regular in-person collaboration required.

Company

Builds a messaging and AI platform used by thousands of businesses, processing millions of messages daily across chat, email, SMS, social, and voice channels. The company is profitable, growing independently, and headquartered in Berlin.

What you will do

• Lead a team of 3–4 engineers and own its technical quality, effectiveness, delivery, development, and performance.
• Spend approximately 50% of your time on architecture, implementation, code reviews, and important technical projects.
• Work with the Product Manager to understand customer problems, shape solutions, scope projects, and set priorities.
• Establish technical direction while enabling engineers to make decisions and develop their judgment.
• Run 1:1s, provide actionable feedback, remove blockers, manage dependencies, and identify delivery risks.
• Improve engineering practices, explore AI-assisted development, and contribute to technical hiring.

Requirements

• 3+ years of experience as a Senior or Staff Engineer, with continued hands-on involvement in software development.
• Strong backend engineering experience, including ownership, design, and implementation of production systems.
• Substantial experience with Java or another JVM language; the backend runs on Kotlin/Quarkus.
• Experience or demonstrated readiness for people leadership, including helping engineers grow and supporting performance.
• Ability to translate product goals into delivered software in fast-paced startup environments and increase delivery velocity.
• Product-minded approach, pragmatic problem-solving, and willingness to engage in product decisions and challenge assumptions constructively.
• Ability to explain complex technical topics to engineers and non-technical stakeholders, create alignment, and motivate people.
• Current use of AI in the development workflow and interest in improving engineering speed, quality, and team practices.
• The role is not suitable for a pure people manager, hero engineer, pure delivery manager, or remote-only operator.

Nice to have

• Kotlin and AWS experience.
• Previous experience in a hybrid Tech Lead role, a short period as an Engineering Manager, or initial people-leadership experience after owning projects and architecture.

Culture & Benefits

• Hybrid work with a Berlin office as the center of gravity and two work-from-home days per week.
• Kotlin/Quarkus, AWS, TypeScript/React/Next.js, and LangGraph are used across the product and AI features.
• Squad-based organization with end-to-end domain ownership, autonomy, and reversible individual-contributor and management career tracks.
• Wellness or transport subscription, regular company and team events, and an annual personal development budget.
• Inclusive, fast-growing startup environment with direct, honest, and kind feedback.
• Relocation support is available for candidates relocating to Berlin. Berlin office provides snacks, drinks, equipment, and community activities.