Engineering Lead – Backend Architecture (Java, Distributed Systems & Security)

We are the team that created OpenVPN, the industry-standard VPN protocol now used by most commercial VPN providers worldwide. We are looking for a hands-on Team Lead to drive the development of critical security-related cloud services used daily by millions of people around the world.

This role is ideal for a technically strong leader who enjoys shaping distributed systems at scale, enabling engineers to do their best work, and applying modern AI-assisted development practices to improve team productivity and quality.

Responsibilities:

• Lead and manage a team of 7–10 backend engineers, with clear ownership of delivery, quality, and sustainable execution.

• Drive practical, team-wide adoption of AI-assisted software development, integrating AI tools into everyday workflows such as design, implementation, testing, code review, and incident analysis.

• Own and continuously evolve the architecture of large-scale, security-critical cloud services consisting of 70+ Java-based microservices.

• Act as the primary architectural decision-maker for the team, balancing long-term maintainability, security, and scalability with delivery needs.

• Define and maintain engineering standards and best practices, including clear guidance on effective and responsible use of AI tools.

• Support engineers through coaching, regular feedback, and mentorship, fostering a collaborative, psychologically safe, and high-performing team environment.

• Guide the design and development of web-based management APIs using JSON and REST.

• Collaborate closely with other teams and stakeholders on system design, integration, and deployment.

• Remain hands-on when needed, focusing on architectural validation, complex problem-solving, and high-impact code reviews rather than day-to-day feature delivery.

• Promote high standards in security, reliability, performance, and operational readiness across all owned systems.

• 6+ years of commercial software development experience, including 5+ years of hands-on Java development.

• Proven experience in a technical leadership or people management role, leading a small to mid-sized engineering team.

• Strong experience designing and maintaining distributed, cloud-native systems in production environments.

• Practical, hands-on experience using AI coding assistants and LLM-based tools to improve development speed, code quality, or team efficiency.

• Experience introducing or standardizing AI-assisted development practices at team level, with a focus on measurable productivity or quality improvements.

• Strong experience building modern REST services using Spring Boot.

• Hands-on experience with security-related technologies, including Spring Security (OAuth2, SAML).

• Solid understanding of TCP/IP networking, SSL/TLS, and VPN concepts.

• Experience working with MongoDB, Redis, and relational databases.

• Experience with Docker-based deployments, Kubernetes, and AWS infrastructure.

• Experience using the AWS SDK for Java.

• Experience with Java messaging systems (Kafka, SNS/SQS, etc.).

• Comfortable working in Linux-based development environments.

• Upper-intermediate or higher English, with the ability to communicate clearly about technical and architectural topics.

• Strong communication skills and a collaborative working style.
  
  
  Nice to Have:

• Experience with ClickHouse and other BigData solutions

• Hands-on experience with Java sockets, WebSockets, or WebRTC

• Experience in security domains such as PKI, encryption, X.509 certificates

• Experience with performance testing tools (Gatling, JMeter)

• Open Source contributions, especially in networking, security, or Java ecosystems
  
  

What We Offer:

• Competitive compensation

• Fully remote work environment

• Self-managed time off

• Long-term cooperation via B2B contract

• Work on globally recognized, security-critical products

• A small team culture that values trust, ownership and engineering excellence