Assistant Manager

Role Overview:

We are looking for an experienced Engineering Manager - Backend to lead the design, development, and delivery of scalable, high-performance backend systems. The ideal candidate will have strong expertise in JavaScript and Node.js, experience managing and mentoring backend developers, and the ability to integrate GenAI-powered capabilities into backend applications.

The role involves driving technical excellence, ensuring reliable and efficient application performance, and collaborating with the AVP Technology to align engineering priorities with the organization's technology roadmap.

Key Responsibilities

Backend Development & Architecture

• Design, architect, and implement scalable REST APIs and backend services.
• Build low-latency, high-availability, and high-performance applications capable of handling large-scale data and traffic.
• Lead the integration of GenAI-powered capabilities into backend systems, including prompt-based APIs and tool-using agents.
• Design and implement efficient backend solutions, identifying opportunities to improve performance, scalability, and reliability.
• Collaborate with frontend developers to ensure seamless integration between frontend and backend systems.
• Conduct technical deep-dives, troubleshoot application issues, and work with infrastructure teams to resolve major incidents.
• Research technical solutions, evaluate alternatives, and implement recommendations aligned with business and engineering needs.

Team Leadership & Management

• Lead and manage a team of backend developers, setting clear goals, delegating responsibilities, and ensuring timely delivery of high-quality solutions.
• Mentor team members through regular one-on-ones, technical guidance, performance feedback, and development planning.
• Plan team capacity, prioritize work, track delivery commitments, and resolve technical and execution blockers.
• Support hiring and onboarding of backend developers.
• Establish and maintain engineering best practices for code reviews, testing, code quality, and software development.
• Collaborate with the AVP Technology to align team priorities with the technology roadmap and communicate delivery progress, risks, and resource requirements.

Testing & Engineering Excellence

• Develop and maintain effective testing practices to ensure software correctness, responsiveness, reliability, and efficiency.
• Promote clean, maintainable, and well-structured code.
• Drive continuous improvements in development processes, engineering productivity, and application performance.

Qualifications & Technical Requirements

Must-Have Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field.
• Minimum of 4 years of professional software development experience.
• Demonstrated experience managing or mentoring developers, including work allocation, delivery ownership, and performance feedback.
• Strong expertise in JavaScript (ES6) and Node.js.
• Experience designing and developing REST APIs using frameworks such as Express.js or Restify.
• Strong knowledge of algorithms, data structures, and Node.js internals, including the event loop.
• Experience building and maintaining large-scale backend services.
• Strong understanding of system design, application scalability, high availability, and performance optimization.
• Experience working with MySQL and NoSQL databases such as MongoDB or DynamoDB.
• Experience writing complex SQL queries.
• Experience building or deploying GenAI-powered backend services, including prompt-based APIs, embedding search, or Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines.
• Strong debugging, code-review, and production issue-resolution skills.
• Good understanding of clean architecture and SOLID principles.

Good-to-Have Requirements

• Experience with GenAI agent frameworks such as LangChain, LangGraph, CrewAI, or equivalent technologies.
• Experience designing and deploying cloud-based applications, preferably on AWS.
• Knowledge of microservices architecture.
• Basic knowledge of Docker and containerization.
• Understanding of WebSockets and real-time communication.
• Experience with Python.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools such as Cursor or Claude for coding, code reviews, and developer productivity.
• Familiarity with Git and collaborative version-control practices.

Preferred Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate combines strong hands-on backend engineering expertise with proven team leadership and delivery ownership. They should be comfortable making architectural decisions, mentoring developers, resolving complex technical challenges, and driving the integration of GenAI capabilities into scalable backend systems.