Lead Backend Engineer - Consumer Growth

Lead Backend Engineer · Senior · Full Time

Milan, ItalyEUR 51k – 67k3mo ago
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Role

What you'll do.

As a Lead Backend Engineer in Consumer Growth at Satispay, you'll drive the technical direction of systems powering end-to-end consumer experiences, from payment flows to loyalty features, while leading through technical excellence and mentoring junior engineers. This individual contributor role requires 5+ years of backend engineering expertise with Java, Spring Boot, and AWS microservices in high-stakes FinTech environments, handling mission-critical infrastructure processing 2M+ daily payments at scale.

Responsibilities

  • Design and implement scalable backend services: Design, develop, and deploy microservices powering the end-to-end Satispay consumer experience, including payment flows, identity verification systems, and engagement features. Own the complete lifecycle from API design and data modeling to production deployment and operational management.
  • Lead cross-team technical architecture and design: Drive technical analysis for projects spanning multiple teams, lead comprehensive design discussions, and produce clear, reviewable technical documentation that enables stakeholders to understand architectural decisions before implementation begins.
  • Champion engineering excellence and operational quality: Establish and raise the quality bar across backend development through rigorous testing strategies, safe progressive rollouts, on-call ownership, and proactive technical debt elimination in systems processing 2M+ daily payments. Advocate for simplicity and maintainability in shared services.
  • Mentor and develop engineering talent: Provide technical guidance, code reviews, and architectural mentorship to junior and mid-level engineers on the Consumer Growth team. Help engineers navigate cross-service dependencies, implement event-driven patterns, and build strong operational excellence instincts.
  • Manage critical external dependencies and integrations: Handle integration with external banking protocols, payment networks, and third-party systems. Ensure resilience, compliance, and reliability of systems interfacing with regulated financial infrastructure and high-volume transaction flows.

Qualifications

What we look for.

Technical

  • Microservices architecture

    Proven experience designing, building, and operating microservices in production environments, including service decomposition, inter-service communication patterns, distributed tracing, and dependency management at scale.

  • Java and Spring Boot ecosystem

    Deep expertise with Java and Spring Boot frameworks. Proficiency in building scalable REST APIs, implementing reactive programming patterns, and leveraging Spring ecosystem tools for production-grade applications.

  • Distributed systems and databases

    Strong understanding of distributed systems principles, eventual consistency, data synchronization, and experience with relational databases like PostgreSQL. Familiarity with designing schemas for high-transaction-volume scenarios.

  • AWS cloud infrastructure

    Hands-on experience with AWS services including EC2, ECS, S3, Lambda, Kinesis, and ElasticSearch. Ability to architect solutions leveraging AWS managed services for reliability, scalability, and cost optimization.

  • Event-driven and streaming architectures

    Experience with event streaming platforms like Kinesis, Kafka, or similar. Understanding of event-driven design patterns, asynchronous processing, and building systems that respond to high-volume event flows.

  • Observability and production operations

    Expertise in implementing monitoring, logging, and alerting systems. Experience with on-call rotations, incident response, and building operational excellence practices for mission-critical systems.

Education

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

    University degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent discipline, or demonstrated equivalent professional experience and self-directed learning in software engineering fundamentals.

Experience

  • 5+ years backend engineering experience

    Minimum five years of professional backend software engineering experience with demonstrated progression in complexity and scope of systems built and maintained.

  • Microservices and cloud environments at scale

    Proven track record building and operating microservices in cloud environments, ideally AWS, handling high-transaction-volume systems in mission-critical contexts with strict availability and performance requirements.

  • Cross-team technical collaboration

    Experience leading technical initiatives across multiple teams, coordinating implementations with stakeholders, and building consensus around architectural decisions in matrix organizations.

  • Mentoring and technical leadership

    Track record of mentoring junior and mid-level engineers, driving technical excellence initiatives, and raising quality standards within engineering teams through influence and example.

  • FinTech or payments domain experience

    Experience in financial services, payments, or FinTech companies, ideally with exposure to regulatory compliance, fraud prevention, settlement systems, or high-value transaction processing.

Skills

Required

  • Java

    Expert-level Java proficiency with deep knowledge of modern Java versions, concurrency patterns, memory management, and performance optimization techniques for high-throughput systems.

  • Spring Boot

    Production-level expertise building Spring Boot applications including Spring Data, Spring Cloud, Spring Security, and integration with enterprise messaging and caching solutions.

  • PostgreSQL

    Strong relational database design and optimization skills including query optimization, indexing strategies, transaction handling, and managing high-volume OLTP workloads.

  • AWS (EC2, ECS, S3, Lambda, Kinesis)

    Hands-on experience provisioning, configuring, and managing AWS services. Ability to design cost-effective, scalable cloud architectures and troubleshoot infrastructure issues.

  • Microservices design patterns

    Deep understanding of microservices patterns including service discovery, circuit breakers, distributed transactions, saga patterns, and managing service-to-service communication at scale.

  • API design

    Experience designing RESTful APIs and event contracts with attention to versioning, backwards compatibility, error handling, and developer experience for internal and external consumers.

  • Technical documentation and communication

    Ability to articulate complex technical concepts clearly in written form, produce architecture decision records, and communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Preferred

  • ElasticSearch and log streaming

    Nice to have

    Experience with log aggregation and search platforms for building observability infrastructure and troubleshooting issues in distributed systems.

  • Payments and FinTech systems

    Nice to have

    Familiarity with payment processing flows, settlement systems, PSD2 regulations, banking APIs, or building compliance-focused financial applications.

  • Event streaming platforms (Kinesis, Kafka)

    Nice to have

    Production experience with stream processing for real-time data pipelines, building event-driven architectures, and handling high-throughput message processing.

  • Identity and authentication systems

    Nice to have

    Experience building or integrating identity verification systems, KYC workflows, authentication flows, or fraud detection mechanisms in consumer-facing applications.

  • Progressive deployment and canary releases

    Nice to have

    Experience implementing blue-green deployments, canary releases, feature flags, and A/B testing infrastructure for safe, incremental production rollouts.

  • Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform, CloudFormation)

    Nice to have

    Experience with IaC tools for managing cloud infrastructure as code, enabling reproducible and version-controlled infrastructure deployments.

Tech stack

Languages

Java

Frameworks

Spring BootSpring DataSpring Cloud

Databases

PostgreSQL

Tools

AWS EC2AWS ECSAWS S3AWS LambdaAWS KinesisElasticSearch

Other

Microservices architectureRESTful APIsEvent-driven architecture

Compensation

Pay and benefits.

Base·EUR 51,000 – 66,500

Equity·Stock options

Benefits

  • Comprehensive health coverage

    Private health insurance provided for you and your family, plus access to mental health support through Serenis and psychological wellness workshops to support your wellbeing.

  • Stock Option Plan

    Participate in Satispay's success through stock options, aligning your long-term interests with company growth and creating ownership mentality within the team.

  • Flexible working arrangements

    Hybrid working with three days per-week in-office requirement (Tuesday, Thursday, plus one additional day of your choice), unlimited PTO, and flexible working hours to maintain work-life balance.

  • Professional development and growth

    Access to professional development programs, internal mobility opportunities, and language courses through Preply to support continuous skill development and career progression.

  • Financial wellness benefits

    Meal vouchers and relocation support if you're relocating internationally, helping offset living expenses and supporting your financial wellbeing.

  • Enhanced family support

    Enhanced parental leave and additional leave for child sickness to support work-life balance for parents and caregivers.

Process

Interview steps.

  1. 01

    Application and initial screening

    Submit your application through the Ashby portal. Satispay's recruiting team reviews applications for alignment with role requirements and will reach out if you're a promising match.

  2. 02

    Technical phone screening

    Initial conversation with a hiring manager or senior engineer to discuss your background, backend engineering experience, familiarity with the tech stack, and motivation for joining Satispay.

  3. 03

    Technical assessment or take-home challenge

    Depending on the assessment style, you may participate in a focused technical evaluation covering distributed systems design, microservices architecture, or backend engineering problem-solving (typically 2-4 hours for take-home).

  4. 04

    System design interview

    Deep-dive discussion with senior engineers on designing scalable backend systems. Expect to discuss tradeoffs, architectural decisions, handling high-volume payment processing, and resilience patterns.

  5. 05

    Cross-functional interviews

    Conversations with engineers from other teams and potentially product stakeholders to assess collaboration style, communication clarity, and ability to work effectively across team boundaries.

  6. 06

    Leadership and values alignment discussion

    Final conversation addressing your approach to mentoring, technical leadership philosophy, and alignment with Satispay's company values and culture.

Full posting

Original listing.

Lead Backend Engineer - Consumer Growth

About us

Satispay began by rethinking the simple act of a payment to remove the friction from our daily routines. But we didn’t stop there. Today, we are building a complete financial platform designed to empower people and concretely improve their lives.

By giving our 6 million users a clear, open path to pay, save, and invest, we are evolving into the definitive destination for every financial need.

You'll be joining the Consumer Growth team. We own the systems that power the end-to-end consumer experience on Satispay - from the moment someone signs up to the day they leave. Our mandate is growth: maximising the number of consumers joining the platform and driving engagement through marketing campaigns and Satispay Points

What you’ll be doing

As a Lead Backend Engineer in the Consumer Growth Team, you'll play a critical role in shaping the technical direction of the team. This is an individual contributor (IC) role - you'll lead through technical excellence and influence, not through direct reports or people management. You will be responsible for the technical quality and delivery of complex systems, collaborating closely with other teams.

Here’s what your day-to-day will look like:

  • Build and ship. You will design, implement, and operate services that power the Satispay consumer experience - from payment flows and identity verification to loyalty and engagement features. You'll work across the full lifecycle: from API design and data modelling to production rollouts and on-call ownership.

  • Cross-team technical leadership. You will drive technical analysis for projects that cut across multiple teams, lead design discussions, and produce documentation that gives stakeholders and other teams a clear, reviewable picture of every design before build begins.

  • Foster engineering excellence. You will raise the quality bar across mobile and backend development: rigorous testing strategies, safe progressive rollouts, and proactive elimination of technical debt in a codebase that ships 2M+ daily payments. You'll champion simplicity and maintainability in services that other pods depend on.

  • Mentor and develop. You will provide technical guidance to junior and mid-level engineers in the Consumer Growth teams, helping them navigate cross-service dependencies, adopt sound event-driven patterns, and build a shared instinct for operational excellence.

Expect challenges, collaboration, and the freedom to bring your ideas to life. Our tech stack includes (but it’s not limited to) PostgreSQL, Java, Spring Boot. We rely on AWS for our infrastructure, with microservices deployed on EC2/ECS, S3 for storage, AWS Lambda for serverless functions, and Kinesis and ElasticSearch for log streaming. You'll take ownership of your work from start to finish.

Who we’re looking for

We need a proven problem-solver who takes initiative, excels in cross-team collaboration, and is a technical quality champion. Does it sound like you?

  • Extensive experience: You have at least 5 years of related experience in back-end software engineering. You have a proven track record of working with microservices and cloud environments (AWS is a plus) in high-paced, mission-critical contexts.

  • Technical depth: You possess deep experience with Java and Spring Boot. You have a strong understanding of distributed systems and how to manage external dependencies (like banking protocols) effectively.

  • Structured communication: You are able to communicate complex technical concepts clearly and convincingly. You excel at coordinating implementations with other teams and building trust with various stakeholders.

  • Impact mindset: You are focused on delivering software that meets evolving user needs. You are adaptable, avoid analysis paralysis, and "go the extra mile" to optimize systems beyond the initial requirements.

  • Passion and language skills: You are passionate about FinTech and fluent in English.

Don't worry if you don't tick every box. We believe in the power of different viewpoints and strengths. Your unique perspective is important as we build something special. If you're passionate and can make a difference, we truly encourage you to apply.

CareAbout: how we support your impact

We move fast, and evolution never stops. It’s a fun ride, but it can be challenging. To make sure our people truly thrive, we’re committed to making their lives easier, both in the office and out in the world. That’s why we created CareAbout:

  • ❤️ Health (Private insurance for you and your family, psychological support with Serenis, mental health workshops)

  • 💰 Financial resources (Stock Option Plan, Meal vouchers, Relocation support if you’re moving countries)

  • ⚙️ Growth and development (Professional development programs, Internal mobility, Language courses with Preply)

  • 🌱 Flexibility (Unlimited PTO, Hybrid working policy*, Flexible working hours)

  • 👨‍👩‍👧 Family (Enhanced parental leave, Additional leave for child sickness)

*We embrace three days per week in-office (Tuesday and Thursday + 1 of your choice), with the option to request extra remote time.

Salary: €51,000 - €66,500 gross per annum

This range is set using objective, gender-neutral criteria for the role's core requirements. However, we do not believe in putting a ceiling on talent. The final compensation package is tailored according to your unique experience and expertise. If your skills go beyond the standard profile, apply anyway so we can discuss a package that reflects your true value.

Equal opportunity employer
At Satispay, we're proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and inclusion, welcoming individuals of all backgrounds. This opportunity is open to everyone, regardless - for instance - of race, colour, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, and national origin.
Join us in a workplace where everyone belongs!

Learn more about us
Our values and pillars aren’t just fancy words on a page - they really shape everything we do.
Explore them here.

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