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Havoc AI is seeking a Backend Team Lead to lead the development of scalable, high-performance backend systems powering autonomous platforms for military and commercial applications. You will manage and grow a team of backend engineers, set technical direction, and own the reliability, security, and performance of backend services. A Backend Tech Lead will report to you, and you'll partner closely on architecture and execution while staying technically engaged.
You will work closely with Frontend, Platform, Autonomy, and Embedded teams to deliver systems that operate reliably in mission-critical environments. This role combines deep backend expertise with proven people management experience and strong technical leadership.
Key responsibilities include leading and mentoring backend engineers, driving execution and technical excellence, owning people management (hiring, performance reviews, career development, coaching, 1:1s), setting engineering standards, and guiding architectural direction. You'll design, build, and maintain scalable, highly concurrent backend services in Go, partner on distributed systems architecture supporting high throughput and real-time operations, and define service boundaries, APIs, and data models.
You'll optimize backend systems for performance, scalability, and resilience, identify and resolve bottlenecks in distributed systems, and ensure high uptime standards. Cross-functional collaboration is essential—you'll integrate services across applications and devices, support end-to-end system design from edge to cloud, and contribute to system-level architecture. You'll also enforce secure development practices and maintain high standards for code quality, testing, and documentation.
Required: 8+ years backend/distributed systems engineering, strong Go expertise with highly concurrent systems, proven people management experience directly managing engineers, experience designing and operating distributed systems at scale, strong API design and system architecture skills, Kubernetes and containerized environments experience, deep understanding of performance optimization and system design, ability to drive projects from concept to production, and U.S. citizenship with eligibility for security clearance.
Nice to have: IoT, robotics, or distributed hardware systems experience; strong networking fundamentals and debugging; AWS or cloud infrastructure experience; embedded systems or hardware integration familiarity.
