Tech Lead - AWS

Rhythm Innovations is an innovative startup specializing in fleet risk management. We are committed to driving customer delight through innovative solutions and a customer-centric approach. As we continue to grow.

We are seeking a hands-on Tech Lead - AWS to design and develop cloud-native applications and integration solutions, while guiding a small team of engineers through the full software development lifecycle. This role is best suited to someone who wants to stay close to the code and the design table, not just the roadmap: you will personally write production code, design solution architecture for new features, and set the technical direction and coding standards that the rest of the team follows on AWS.

You will work closely with product managers, architects, and fellow engineers to translate business requirements into well-designed, scalable, and maintainable AWS solutions, using services such as Lambda, API Gateway, S3, RDS, DynamoDB, and Glue.

•         Design and develop backend services, APIs, and data pipelines on AWS, writing production-grade code in Python, Node.js, or Java as a hands-on contributor (targeting roughly 60-70% hands-on coding/design, balanced with technical leadership).

•         Translate business and product requirements into detailed technical designs, including API contracts, data models, sequence diagrams, and component-level architecture.

•         Lead the design of serverless and event-driven solutions using AWS Lambda, API Gateway, Step Functions, EventBridge, SQS, and SNS.

•         Design and implement data storage and processing solutions using Amazon S3, RDS (PostgreSQL/MySQL/Aurora), DynamoDB, and AWS Glue for ETL/ELT workloads.

•         Own technical design decisions for a squad/pod: evaluate trade-offs, document design options, and drive design reviews to consensus.

•         Conduct thorough code reviews, enforce coding standards, and champion clean, testable, well-documented code across the team.

•         Break down epics into technical tasks, estimate effort, and guide sprint planning in partnership with the engineering manager and product owner.

•         Mentor and coach engineers on AWS best practices, secure coding, performance optimization, and design patterns.

•         Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines (CodePipeline, CodeBuild, GitHub Actions) to support frequent, reliable, low-risk deployments.

•         Implement infrastructure-as-code using AWS CloudFormation, CDK, or Terraform, and review IaC changes proposed by the team.

•         Design for security and compliance from the outset: IAM least-privilege roles, VPC network design, encryption at rest and in transit, and secrets management.

•         Set up monitoring, logging, and alerting (CloudWatch, X-Ray) to proactively catch performance and reliability issues, and lead root-cause analysis on production incidents.

•         Troubleshoot and resolve complex production issues across the stack, acting as an escalation point for the team.

•         Continuously evaluate new AWS services and features, and recommend adoption where they simplify design or reduce cost.

•         Collaborate with QA to define testing strategy (unit, integration, load) for new designs and features.

•         Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).

•         6+ years of professional software development experience, including at least 2 years in a technical leadership or lead-developer capacity.

•         Strong, hands-on development experience with AWS services, particularly Lambda, API Gateway, S3, RDS, DynamoDB, and Glue, in production environments.

•         Expert-level proficiency in at least one of Python, Node.js (TypeScript), or Java, with a track record of designing and shipping production systems.

•         Proven experience designing RESTful APIs and event-driven architectures, including API versioning, authentication (OAuth2/JWT), and API gateway patterns.

•         Solid understanding of relational and NoSQL database design, indexing, and query optimization (RDS and DynamoDB).

•         Hands-on experience with infrastructure-as-code (CloudFormation, CDK, or Terraform) and CI/CD tooling.

•         Experience conducting code reviews, setting technical standards, and mentoring engineers of varying seniority.

•         Comfortable owning technical designs end-to-end: from requirement discussions through design documentation, implementation, and production support.

•         Strong communication skills, able to explain technical trade-offs clearly to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders.

•         AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate/Professional or AWS Certified Developer – Associate (or equivalent hands-on experience).

•         Experience with containerized workloads (ECS, Fargate, or EKS) is a plus.

•         Exposure to Apache Kafka, Apache Spark, or real-time streaming architectures is a plus.

•         Familiarity with data governance and compliance standards (GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2) is a plus.

•         A hands-on leadership role with real influence over technical design and team practices at a growing startup.

•         Collaborative and dynamic work environment.

•         Professional growth and development opportunities.