Tech Lead / Architect for Containerized Backend Platform

We are looking for a Tech Lead to work on a long term freelance mission full time, fully remote for a Client in the Marking Technology Sector.

Start date - Immediate. Immediate Joiners only please

Salary - $5,500 per month (USD)

Location - Fully remote - Please note, this role does not provide sponsorship or sponsorship transfer.

Duration: 12 months+

Overview:

Our Client is building a new, containerized backend platform to support our rapidly growing mobile and data products. The platform will be API-first, Go-based, and deployed on AWS (UAE region) with secure private networking, observability, and blue/green CI/CD.

We are hiring a Tech Lead / Architect to lead this initiative - driving technical design, development standards, and system architecture for the next-generation backend. You will shape how the Client builds, deploys, and scales its services, working closely with the CTO, DevOps, and product teams. This role requires hands-on engineering depth combined with system-level architectural thinking - someone who can code, design, review, and lead.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Architecture & System Design

• Define and maintain the overall backend architecture: Go API layer, internal services, data layer, and integrations.
• Design scalable, secure, multi-AZ AWS infrastructure.
• Ensure API-first, OpenAPI-driven contracts between backend and mobile/web clients.
• Define clear service boundaries, data ownership, and internal communication patterns (REST/gRPC/SQS/EventBridge).
• Contribute to architectural documentation (ADRs, diagrams, service catalog) on Confluence.

Technical Leadership

• Lead and mentor backend engineers (Go developers) and set engineering standards across the team.
• Drive code quality, testing culture, observability, and operational readiness.
• Collaborate with DevOps on CI/CD, infrastructure-as code (Terraform), and blue/green deploys. Work closely with QA and Product to ensure predictable, safe releases aligned with code freeze periods.
• Participate in capacity planning, cost optimization, and incident post-mortems.

Implementation & Delivery

• Lead by example through hands-on development (Go based APIs and microservices).
• Review and modernize existing PHP-based components as part of the migration.
• Enforce security, performance, and observability best practices (secrets management, metrics, logs).
• Define SLOs and ensure compliance with performance and uptime objectives

QUALIFICATIONS

• 7+ years in backend or platform engineering; 2+ years in a tech lead or architect role.
• Deep experience in Golang, including concurrency, testing, and idiomatic design.
• Solid background in AWS architecture (ECS/Fargate, RDS Postgres, Secrets Manager, SQS, CloudWatch, API Gateway).
• Strong understanding of microservice architecture, system design, and scalability principles Experience designing and implementing CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Terraform, IaC). Familiarity with observability stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, OpenSearch/CloudWatch).
• Strong grasp of networking, IAM, and security best practices for cloud-native apps.
• Experience defining and evolving OpenAPI-based APIs for mobile and web clients.
• Proficiency with PostgreSQL schema versioning and migration strategies.

KEY SKILLS:

• Experience in migration from PHP to Go or other modernization efforts.
• Familiarity with HubSpot API/webhooks and third-party integrations.
• Exposure to event-driven architecture (Kafka/SNS/EventBridge).
• Experience building multi-region or multi-tenant systems.
• Contributions to engineering standards, internal tooling, or technical documentation

Leadership & Soft Skills

• Proven experience leading engineering teams through architecture transitions or platform rebuilds.
• Strong communication skills - able to explain trade-offs and influence technical direction.
• Strategic mindset with hands-on execution comfortable switching between architecting and coding.
• Collaborative approach with Product, QA, and DevOps teams. Organized, self-driven, and aligned with a ‘stability first’ engineering culture