Lead Software Engineer / Tech Lead

We are seeking an experienced Tech Lead / Lead Engineer to spearhead the design, development, and delivery of our next-generation pricing, sales and marketing platforms, such as our dynamic pricing software platform. This individual will lead a team of engineers to build a data-intensive application leveraging AWS cloud services, Java, and Python, ensuring high scalability, performance, and robustness. This is a hands-on leadership role: you will set the technical vision, guide architectural decisions, and contribute directly to coding and solution design while mentoring and developing your team.

Simon-Kucher is at the forefront of innovation in our space, inventing business models, algorithms, solutions, and methodologies for unlocking better growth of our clients. And Simon-Kucher Engine's digital end-to-end solutions deliver sustained top-line impact for our clients. Are you interested in working in a team of digital evangelists with a can-do attitude? Want to experience the dynamics of agile processes in open-minded teams? How about getting creative in a startup atmosphere with a steep development curve and flat hierarchies? And most importantly, do you want to make a difference? Then you've come to the right place.

This is a hybrid position with flexible time split between working in our Berlin office and remote working. What makes us special:

• Advance your career with exciting professional opportunities in our thriving company with an entrepreneurial and startup spirit
• Add to your experience with our projects that focus on growth, have a positive impact, and truly matter
• Voice your unique ideas in a corporate culture defined by openness and integrity
• Enjoy the opportunity to work from abroad (workation)
• Feel at home working with our helpful, enthusiastic colleagues who have great team spirit
• Broaden your perspective with our extensive training curriculum and learning programs (e.g. LinkedIn Learning)
• Speak your mind in our holistic feedback and development processes (e.g. 360-degree feedback)
• Satisfy your need for adventure with our opportunities to live and work abroad in one of our many international offices
• Enjoy our benefits, such as hybrid working, daycare allowance, corporate discounts, and wellbeing support (e.g. Headspace).
• Unwind in our break areas where you can help yourself to the healthy snacks and beverages provided
• See another side of your coworkers at our frequent employee events and highly anticipated World Meeting and Holiday Party

How you will create an impact:

Leadership & Strategy

• Define and drive the technical roadmap for the dynamic pricing platform.
• Lead, mentor, and grow a cross-functional team of software engineers and data engineers.
• Champion engineering best practices, agile development, and DevOps culture.

Architecture & Development

• Architect a cloud-native, data-heavy pricing system on AWS with high reliability and scalability.
• Create technical solution concepts for complex functional and non functional requirements (e.g. pricing algorithms, real-time data processing, and analytics integration) and drive implementation
• Write clean, high-performance code in Java, PySpark/Spark and Python while setting coding standards for the team.
• Ensure seamless integration of data pipelines, APIs, and third-party systems, leveraging PySpark/Spark for distributed data processing.
• Engage in documentation and code review to uphold high standards of code quality and foster ongoing improvements

Data & Performance

• Design systems capable of ingesting, transforming, and analyzing structured and unstructured datasets with PySpark/Spark.
• Optimize computation-heavy models and queries for low-latency, high-throughput pricing operations.
• Implement monitoring, alerting, and cost optimization strategies in AWS.

Collaboration & Delivery

• Work closely with product managers, data scientists, and business stakeholders to align technology with business outcomes.
• Translate complex pricing or sales requirements into scalable, production-ready software.
• Ensure timely delivery of features with a balance of speed, quality, and technical debt management.

Do you have experience in Spark?, Do you have a Master's degree?, Technical Expertise

• You have a bachelor's or master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Business Information Systems, or a related field.
• Strong programming background in Java and Python.
• Proven experience designing and implementing enterprise level software.
• Deep knowledge of AWS (Certification) cloud services (e.g., EC2, S3, RDS, EMR, Lambda, ECS/EKS, Glue, Redshift).
• Proficiency in building APIs, microservices, and distributed systems.
• Understanding of data modeling, ETL pipelines, and high-performance computing.

Leadership & Delivery

• 5+ years of experience in software engineering, with at least 2+ years in a technical leadership role.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and inspire engineering teams, drive architectural decisions, and deliver complex software projects.
• Experience working with agile methodologies and CI/CD pipelines.

Preferred

• Exposure to machine learning / optimization algorithms applied to pricing or similar domains.
• Knowledge of containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Experience in fintech, e-commerce, travel, or retail pricing systems.