Principal Backend Engineer

ABOUT US At Indie Campers, we're transforming the road trip experience, making it accessible to everyone through our innovative campervan marketplace. Our digital-first approach and relentless focus on customer satisfaction have allowed us to create a seamless booking experience that delivers top-quality road trips at unbeatable prices. With over one million nights rented and 300,000+ travelers from 169 countries, our platform offers a growing array of road trip options—from short-term RV rentals to long-term campervan subscriptions, and even the chance to purchase one of our vehicles. Rooted in a deep commitment to technology, we face both thrilling and complex challenges that require top-tier talent to conquer. As we continue our rapid expansion, we're on the lookout for passionate individuals ready to join us on this exciting journey. THE ROLE As Indie Campers continues to expand its platform globally, we're faced with the complex challenge of scaling our backend systems to meet growing demand. We're transitioning to an event-driven architecture using CQRS, and we're looking for a Principal Backend Engineer to take a leading role in this technical evolution. In this role, you'll be responsible for designing, building, and optimizing the architecture that underpins our platform. Beyond just coding, you'll be instrumental in defining technical strategies, guiding the engineering team, and ensuring that our systems are both scalable and reliable. As a senior technical leader, you'll not only solve complex engineering challenges but also drive the backend's strategic direction. You'll collaborate with cross-functional teams and provide mentorship to developers at all levels, fostering a culture of technical excellence and innovation. WHAT WILL YOU WORK ON? Mentoring and guiding backend engineers, ensuring adherence to high-quality coding standards. Drive the technical direction of Indie Campers' backend architecture, leading the transition to an event-driven system with CQRS. Design and optimize scalable, high-performance backend systems that can support millions of users globally. Own the entire lifecycle of backend development—from ideation to deployment—ensuring reliability, scalability, and maintainability. Engage directly with stakeholders to understand business needs and translate them into technical solutions. Lead architecture reviews and ensure alignment with business objectives and best practices. Collaborate with the front-end team to ensure seamless integration between backend services and user-facing applications. Stay current with industry trends and emerging technologies to ensure our technology stack remains at the forefront. Proactively identify and address system bottlenecks, ensuring maximum system uptime and efficiency. Create and maintain comprehensive technical documentation, driving knowledge-sharing across the engineering team. WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR? 10+ years of experience in backend development, with at least 4 years in senior or staff-level engineering roles. Proven experience architecting and scaling distributed systems and event-driven architectures. Extensive expertise with backend technologies including Java, Go, Python, Rust, Ruby, or (experience with TypeScript is a bonus). Strong understanding of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Microservices, CQRS, and event-driven systems. Experience working with message brokers such as RabbitMQ, Kafka, and AWS SNS/SQS. Expertise with databases such as Postgres and Redis, including optimization and fine-tuning. Hands-on experience with cloud platforms, particularly AWS, and a solid understanding of DevOps practices including Docker, Git, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure as code. Strong leadership skills, with the ability to guide technical decisions and mentor engineers across multiple teams. Ability to balance strategic vision with hands-on coding and problem-solving, ensuring technical alignment with business goals. Fluent communication skills in English and/or Portuguese, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM US Competitive compensation; We encourage your adventurous spirit with travel incentives, including a yearly €500 travel voucher and free use of our vans; You'll enjoy an extra vacation day for your birthday, and our company's birthday is also a holiday; Bi-annual performance reviews and tailored growth opportunities; An international environment with colleagues from over 54 nationalities; Frequentteamevents, both in-person and virtual; Support for your professional development with training opportunities and a yearly €1000 training voucher; Relocation bonus for candidates who aren't based in Lisbon. This is a hybrid role in Lisbon, Portugal. People who are willing to relocate are welcome to apply. Are you ready to Go Indie?