We are looking for a Lead Backend Engineer (Java) to join a project with one of our clients. The client has been established for over 10 years, is part of an international group, and develops its own product portfolio across several key areas, including Accounting, Compliance, Healthcare, among others.
You will play a key role in shaping our backend systems, evolving our architecture, and supporting the growth and maturity of the engineering team.
This role combines hands-on development with technical leadership, close collaboration with stakeholders, and a strong DevOps culture.
Responsibilities:
- Design, build and maintain robust backend systems that scale with the business
- Take ownership of architectural decisions, performance optimization and technical quality
- Contribute across the stack, from backend development to infrastructure and CI/CD automation
- Continuously improve codebases through refactoring, testing and quality initiatives
- Collaborate closely with product managers, designers and engineers to deliver valuable features
- Actively participate in Scrum ceremonies and agile planning
- Provide technical guidance and mentorship, supporting other developers in their growth
- Work with stakeholders to translate business requirements into technical solutions
- Foster a culture of ownership, continuous learning and improvement within the team
Requirements
- Strong experience developing Java-based solutions, with a focus on scalability, performance, and maintainability
- Experience with Spring Boot is essential; exposure to legacy frameworks is a plus
- A genuine interest in software architecture and evolving systems as product needs grow
- Solid knowledge of API design and integration, including REST, OpenAPI and GraphQL
- Experience working with microservices architectures and asynchronous communication
- Practical experience with messaging and queueing systems (e.g. AWS SQS/SNS, GCP Pub/Sub)
- Hands-on experience with relational and non-relational databases (PostgreSQL, Oracle, NoSQL)
- Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and automation tools (GitLab, Jenkins, scripting)
- Confidence using modern development tools such as Git, Maven, and IntelliJ
- Experience with cloud-native environments (AWS and/or GCP), Kubernetes and serverless solutions
- Knowledge of Infrastructure as Code practices and tools (Terraform, AWS CDK, Pulumi, Ansible, Helm)
- Strong DevOps mindset — you take responsibility for what you build, from development to production
- Experience mentoring engineers and supporting team growth
- Comfortable working in Agile teams (Scrum, Kanban)
- Excellent communication skills in English
Benefits
- Employment Contract;
- Health Insurance;
- Meal Card;
- Gym Ticket;
- Hybrid Work (Porto - Portugal)
Top Skills
What We Do
Alongside | Build Great Products with Great Teams
Alongside helps VC-backed start-ups, scale-ups and digital-first enterprises accelerate their roadmaps by assembling elite, time-zone-aligned teams of software engineers, product managers and UX/UI designers, often in under 14 days. Our Porto HQ sits in Europe’s fastest-growing tech hub and taps a vetted global talent pool that lets you ship faster, reduce burn and stay laser-focused on product-market fit.
Why high-growth companies choose Alongside
• Top 1 % practitioners: rigorously screened full-stack, mobile, blockchain & AI/ML engineers, plus senior designers and product leaders. 
• Flexible engagement models: scale a single specialist, an entire squad, or an autonomous build-and-ship pod.
• End-to-end ownership: discovery → design → development → launch, with weekly velocity reports and transparent KPIs.
• Cost-efficient remote talent: New York, Porto, Pune & Hanoi offices give you round-the-clock progress without Silicon-Valley price tags. 
• Proven track record: core Alongside team took Arkive, the world’s first decentralised museum, from idea to funded product. We helped Circuit Security to secure 4.5M in funding and many other startups.
