Lead Backend Engineer: Ai-Driven Microservices Leader

About the Opportunity You will be part of the Intelligent Operations Platforms (IOP) or the Assistance segments, which cross-functional teams power the operations at N26 and, in some cases, enable other tech teams through a robust platform approach. We are seeking a talented Lead Engineer to join our expanding teams and evolve our product, powered by a microservice architecture predominantly written in Java and Kotlin and built with Spring Boot. Our cross-functional teams are passionate about collaboration and knowledge sharing, and work with a high degree of autonomy. In This Role, You Will Directly impact your team's technical scope by working hand in hand with Product Managers and Engineering Managers to manage product technical roadmaps and dependencies, minimizing technical debt. Architect & Build: Design, develop, and maintain high-availability, high-performance web applications that serve as the backbone of our internal operations. Foster tech-solid delivery: Drive the team's build-it-ship-it attitude by demonstrating healthy engineering practices, writing clean, well-tested, well-refactored code, and shipping it into production as often as possible. Integrate AI: Implement new features and integrations with foundational models and automation systems to empower our back-office teams. Scale: Optimize, measure, and monitor distributed systems to ensure seamless, continuous software delivery. Mentor & Document: Role-model engineering excellence through code reviews, technical documentation, and knowledge sharing, cultivating learning and avoiding knowledge silos in the team. Lead initiatives to improve our company-wide engineering culture and discover ways to multiply the effectiveness of the team and the organization. Be involved in recruitment and employer-brand projects to help make our engineering team stronger. What You Need To Be Successful Engineering Mindset & Design Design Patterns: A firm grasp of object-oriented programming, distributed systems principles, and methodologies like DDD using architecture design patterns such as Hexagonal, Event-Driven, and Microservices. Quality First: A strong track record of using engineering best practices, including Clean Code, TDD/BDD, and deep observability. AI-Augmented Development: Proven experience in critically using AI coding agents (e.g., Claude Code, Gemini Code, GitHub Copilot) to accelerate delivery without compromising code integrity or security. Technical Stack Modern backend: 5+ years of experience building complex distributed systems in Java or Kotlin with Spring Boot/Spring AI. API Design: Solid experience designing and implementing robust REST APIs. Data & DevOps: Professional experience with PostgreSQL (performance and scalability) and a "DevOps mindset" regarding CI/CD pipelines. Experience with AWS and/or Kubernetes is a plus. Bonus: Knowledge of Python or generative AI frameworks (LangChain, RAG pipelines) is a significant plus. Leadership & Soft Skills Bias for Action: A "can-do" attitude with a focus on product understanding to ensure continuous improvement and successful delivery. Effective Leadership: Guide a team of mid and senior engineers to milestone delivery by unblocking and mentoring. Collaborative Spirit: Strong collaborative spirit with a commitment to knowledge sharing and mutual growth. Communication: Clear written and verbal communication skills. Strong ownership: A sense of independence and an ability to establish structures or processes that adapt to a constantly evolving domain and environment. What's In It For You Accelerate your career growth by joining one of Europe's most talked-about disruptors. Competitive personal development budget and work-from-home budget. Discounts for fitness, wellness, language apps, and public transportation. A free Premium subscription on your personal N26 bank account, plus subscriptions for friends and family. Vacation: An additional day of annual leave for each year of