Tech Lead - Backend & Distributed Systems (Kafka/Python) - InsureTech

Hiring for: An exciting InsurTech startup building an AI-native stack for the Insurance.

Role: Tech Lead - Distributed Systems - Immediate Joiners

Positions: 1

Experience: 9 to 12 years

Location(s): Bangalore, Mumbai

Salary: Up to INR 80 LPA

Key Skills: Java/Python, Distributed Systems, System Design, Event-Driven Architecture/Kafka, Microservices, Cloud (AWS/GCP)

Role Overview

We are looking for a hands-on Tech Lead with 912 years of experience building complex, mission-critical platforms. This role is focused on strong technical ownership, system design, and engineering execution, with some people leadership responsibilities as needed.

The ideal candidate should be a builder-first, comfortable owning architecture, coding critical components, solving distributed systems challenges, and working closely with product and customers to deliver scalable systems.

Experience in domains such as insurance, banking, payments, lending, or enterprise SaaS is preferred, but strong product engineering experience from other sectors is also welcome.

Responsibilities

Own architecture and technical direction for distributed, event-driven systems.

Design and build scalable backend systems using microservices and event-driven patterns.

Contribute actively to coding, debugging, and architecture reviews (more than 50% hands-on expected).

Drive system design decisions around scalability, reliability, observability, consistency, security, and compliance.

Improve engineering velocity through stronger design reviews, code reviews, testing practices, and CI/CD.

Work closely with product, business, and customers during solutioning and implementation.

Break down complex technical initiatives into milestones and drive execution.

Support and mentor engineers on implementation and technical decision-making.

Introduce AI-assisted engineering practices and modern development workflows where relevant.

Required Experience

912 years of software engineering experience.

Strong hands-on experience in Java and/or Python.

Strong experience building distributed systems and scalable backend platforms.

Strong experience with event-driven systems (Kafka or similar).

Strong understanding of system design, transactional boundaries, and integration patterns.

Experience in startup or high-ownership fast-paced environments.

Ability to work directly with enterprise customers and business stakeholders.

Strong communication and ownership mindset.

Good to Have

Familiarity with DDD / CQRS / Event Sourcing.

Experience in BFSI / Insurance / Payments / Lending domains (preferred).

Experience with orchestration platforms such as Temporal.

Cloud-native architecture experience on AWS / GCP / Azure.

Exposure to AI/LLM-based systems in enterprise products.