salmon-group - Backend Lead (Java/Kotlin)

• Months 1–6: you're the primary technical presence on a greenfield initiative — making foundational architecture decisions, shaping the infrastructure setup, defining the release process and testing strategy, and working directly with business stakeholders to keep technical direction grounded in real product needs. You write production code yourself. • Month 6 onward: you build and lead the team around what you've built — Kotlin developers, system analysts, and QA engineers — continuing to own architecture as the product moves from foundation to production at scale. • Stay the translation layer between business and engineering throughout both phases: you set direction before the team existed, and you remain that link as it grows. • What you'll own • Make the foundational architecture decisions for a new banking domain — made once, by you, without working around anyone else's prior choices. • Assess and evolve the current infrastructure setup and CI/CD approach for a product starting from scratch. • Define the release process and testing strategy from the ground up. • Write production code in Java and Kotlin during the solo phase. • Build and lead a mixed-discipline team of Kotlin developers, system analysts, and QA engineers from month 6 onward. • Lead code reviews and design reviews, mentoring the team on distributed systems thinking and production ownership. • Own delivery across the team's technical initiatives — stay hands-on rather than shifting into pure coordination. • What makes you a strong fit • Strong commercial Java experience — must-have, not a nice-to-have. • JVM expertise more broadly; commercial Kotlin experience valued alongside Java. • At least 1 year of architectural or technical leadership experience — formal or de facto. • Genuine comfort operating solo for an extended period: defining architecture, infrastructure direction, release process, and testing strategy without a team in place. • Experience designing distributed systems and making real production-scale architectural decisions. • Experience with PostgreSQL, AWS, Terraform, and GitLab CI/CD, or equivalent tooling. • Ability to communicate directly and effectively with business stakeholders, not just engineers. • English B2 or above. • Recruiter screening — 30 min. Mutual fit on scope, compensation, remote setup, and motivation. We'll specifically talk through what working solo for the first 3–6 months looks like in practice. • Technical deep dive — 60 min with a senior engineer or hiring manager. Real Java and Kotlin production experience, and how you've approached architecture decisions — with or without a formal Lead title. • Hands-on coding / pairing — 60–90 min. Commercial-grade Java fluency in a realistic setting. Non-negotiable given Java is a must-have. • System design — 60–90 min. How you reason about distributed systems and greenfield architecture — designing something new is a different skill than evolving something inherited. • Leadership & autonomy interview — 45–60 min with the hiring manager or a peer lead. Technical leadership potential and genuine comfort operating alone for an extended period, plus how you'd approach building a team from scratch. • Final interview — 30–45 min with a senior stakeholder. Alignment on scope, expectations, and the solo-then-team trajectory.