Lead AI-First Backend Engineer (Golang, Claude Code)

We are looking for a highly capable Lead AI-First Golang Engineer to join a project where you’ll build an AI tourism platform. This is not a traditional coding role. We don’t need coders; we need engineers who build features end-to-end using AI coding tools.

You’ll use Claude Code and other AI tools to 10x your output, always thinking about how the product or feature you are working on benefits the user.

Also, we have no QA team — you OWN the quality of what you ship!

Regarding Lead responsibilities:

• This is not a people-management role: no one-to-ones, no performance reviews, no coaching responsibilities.
• Every engineer involved in the project already owns their work end-to-end (IC + DRI), so this role is not about “more ownership”.
• A Lead is the spokesperson, coordinator, and facilitator for their pod, internally with product, design, and leadership, and externally with clients. You think product-first, contribute meaningfully in product planning sessions, and represent your pod in those rooms.
• You remain a hands-on backend engineer. The spokesperson, coordination, and facilitation work sits on top of your IC contributions, not instead of them. Expect the majority of your week to still be engineering.

What you’ll actually do:

• Own features end-to-end: from specs to deployment to fixing bugs
• Use Claude Code to generate Golang backend code
• Review AI output for quality and architectural fit
• Fix bugs to learn our codebase, then rapidly build new features
• Make quick decisions on what to build vs buy vs generate with AI
• Talk to customers when they report issues, and ship fixes the same day

Additionally, at the Lead level:

• Be the spokesperson for your pod, internally with PMs, designers, and leadership, and externally with clients and partners
• Coordinate work across the pod: break initiatives into chunks, sequence them, surface blockers, and facilitate hand-offs
• Represent your pod in product planning sessions and bring a strong product-driven point of view to scoping and trade-offs
• Join client meetings when needed to gather context, align on requirements, and report on delivery

Products you will build:

• Platform: data- and AI-focused features, internal tooling, agentic systems
• Integrations: API connections to supplier and business client platforms, data ingestion pipelines, LLM providers

Our stack:

• Backend: Go monorepo (no framework, 3+ services)
• Hosting: PaaS-managed containers, local setup fully mirrors production via Docker Compose
• Tools: Jaeger tracing, Betterstack (Logging, Alerting), Redis Async queue
• Databases: PostgreSQL, Redis
• AI tooling: Claude Code (mandatory)

You are a great fit if you:

• You think in features and architecture, and not in single lines of code
• Get frustrated when development takes weeks instead of days
• Can spot subtle bugs in AI-generated code quickly
• You ship fast, but always verify it actually works
• Have shipped real products that customers actually use
• Think “how can AI build this?” as your first instinct
• (Lead) You’re energized by product planning sessions and have opinions about what the pod should build next, not just how
• (Lead) You’re comfortable being the face of your pod, both in internal planning rooms and on calls with clients

Red flags (don’t apply if):

• You’ve never used Claude Code or similar AI coding tools
• You’re a perfectionist who loves to code
• You need detailed specs before starting
• You see AI as a threat rather than leverage
• You’re outside European/African time zones
• (Lead) You’re looking for a people-management role with one-to-ones, performance reviews and career coaching, but that’s not what this is
• (Lead) You want to lead a team in name but not be hands-on in the codebase
• (Lead) You’d rather avoid client meetings or stakeholder-facing conversations
• (Lead) You think product planning is someone else’s job and you just want the tickets handed to you

You must have:

• Ownership mentality with a strive for elegantly simple, high-quality solutions
• Strive for max quality — you test your own work thoroughly since we have no QA team, everything you ship MUST work
• Product mindset — you care about WHY we’re building something
• Proven experience using Claude Code — share specific examples
• Strong Golang experience — you’ll review AI’s code in these and you must understand how it works
• Passion for simple, secure, and observable systems that perform well even under massive load
• Ability to do on-call once in a while to help maintain our platform’s reliability & uptime
• Broad architectural knowledge of building modern full-stack applications
• Excellent spoken English and a good internet connection for daily video calls
• ⚠️ European or African timezones (±3 hours from CET)
• Available full-time (40 hours/week)

Required at Lead level:

• Multi-year experience leading a pod, squad or similar unit (this is a hard must, not a nice-to-have)
• A genuinely product-driven mindset: you think about user value and business outcomes before implementation
• Comfort facilitating and coordinating a pod without relying on formal authority
• Willingness and ability to take part in client meetings and act as the external face of your pod
• Strong spoken and written communication for planning sessions, stakeholder updates, and client conversations

Summary:

• AI-first delivery: proven, demonstrable experience using Claude Code or similar agentic AI tools is a hard must (specific examples expected on the application)
• Senior Golang Developer, 5+ years of experience, can potentially consider really strong candidates with 4 years of experience
• Hands-on engineering position
• Not a people-management role
• Lead part: Demonstrable experience of leading delivery within a team: coordinating, breaking work down, representing the team in planning and stakeholder conversations, facilitating outcomes. Someone who has been the de facto tech lead in a squad for several years without ever holding the formal title is absolutely fine too.
• Strong proficiency in English (Upper-intermediate level or Advanced)
• Full-time
• Fully remote
• Long-term cooperation
• B2B contract
• Paid vacation and sick leave

Recruitment stages:

• Prescreen interview with a recruitment manager (45min)
• Client interview: 1 hr pre-screen with the Engineering Manager (cultural fit, technical mindset assessment)
• Client assignment: 30min task focused on AI usage
• Final interview with client: up to 1 hr meeting with CTO